


Ember's Nightmare

by ljmaystrader



Category: Ghost (Sweden Band)
Genre: After-care, Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Blood and Injury, Comfort Food, Crying, Cuddling & Snuggling, Domestic Fluff, Dreams and Nightmares, Driving, Eventual Smut, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Major character death - Freeform, Mentions of Death, Mentions of Violence, Motion Sickness, Panic Attacks, Past Rape/Non-con, Past Sexual Abuse, Slice of Life, Slow Burn, at least they are presently dead in this fic, plot heavy, we all know the papas are dead here
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-26
Updated: 2019-11-05
Packaged: 2019-12-18 11:34:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 14
Words: 52,066
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18249011
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ljmaystrader/pseuds/ljmaystrader
Summary: After waking from a horrendous nightmare, our beloved fire ghoul seeks comfort in the arms of a sister of sin.(tags will update accordingly)





	1. Lucifer Guide Me

**Author's Note:**

> (I make no money from this. This is a work of fiction and any similarity to reality is a dreadful or delightful accident.)  
> This is my first posted fic in damn near 15+ years, please go easy on me. I choose to use Ember as well as Dewdrop because I can.  
> This work was originally a gift fic to two lovely people who inspire me.

Ember sat up from another bad dream, cold sweat covering his brown. He let his head fall forward and his hair cascaded down in a curtain. Again it was the same one, distant memories from a lifetime ago in hell. Sighing, he knew if he would never get back to sleep or if he did it wouldn’t be restful.

He swung the covers back from himself and flopped back against his mattress. “What am I doing?” he rubbed the heels of his pals against his eyes until the patterns no longer interested him. “There’s no way she would be up at this hour.” In truth, he didn’t even know what time it was. He turned and looked over to the glaring red alarm clock beside his bed. It read the time as 3:27. Fuck. He hasn’t even really been asleep too long. He grumbled and found himself getting out of bed despite what he was thinking to himself.

He lost a few moments of time thinking about the lovely sister who was always a comfort to him. He barely even knew her name, much less if she would be willing to cuddle with him. Fuck, he was truly a demon who had it bad.

Ember slipped on a pair of grey sweats, a black band t-shirt and some house shoes before grabbing his set of dorm keys and locking the door behind him. He wasn’t exactly sure if he remembered the woman’s room number, but he felt he would get it right when he saw it.

Ember crossed the old stone corridors of the abbey and made his way over to the sisters of sin dorm halls. He pulled his hair up into a ponytail and looped the black hair tie from around his wrist about the hair to secure it “Let’s see, let’s see… uh... shit. I think it’s this one” he trotted up to the hall door and slipped inside. “Yeah this looks familiar,” he thought to himself as he turned down the right hallway. He stopped, suddenly unsure of which door it was. Ember threw his hands up and chose the third door on the left. He knocked a couple of times, gently at first to see if the sister would come answer it.

A sister did in fact sleepily answer the door and jumped backwards, slamming the door in his face in surprise, before bashfully opening it back up and peeking through the crack.

"Dewdrop??" The sister asked quietly. It was not the woman he had hoped to see. He reached his hand up to scratch at the back of his head, claws itching the scalp. He grinned and waved half heartedly.

"Um, hi, I-"

"What do you want? You’re not going to eat me are you? What are you doing here? How did you even know I was in here? How do you know which room is mine? Have you been stalking me? Ohmigod you’re here to have your way with me, aren’t you?!" The woman’s eyes widened and she shut the door again in his face. Ember sighed and hung his head, his hand dropping to his side. 

"Uh no, I don’t even know who you-"

He didn’t get a chance to finish before the door swung wide open and the scarcely clothed woman flung herself out of the door at him. Ember caught her and took a few steps back. They both nearly clattered to the floor just then. The sister began to furiously try to kiss his face, his neck, his chest, shoulders, anywhere her mouth could reach. He shoved his arms between them and tried to pry her off and away, but she held fast to him, clinging to his t shirt.

Ember finally grasped her face in his clawed hands and she looked up at him, eyes heavy with lust. He looked back at her, his own eyes flickering like coals. This seemed to settle her down for a moment and she stopped struggling to rip his shirt clean away from his body.

"I do not mean to give you the wrong idea, darling, but I am presently not here to take you to bed and uh, what was it?'Have my way with you'?" With this, the woman’s jaw fell open and Ember assumed from the look she gave him, she would much rather the very pits of Hell had opened up and swallowed her at that very moment.

She looked down at herself, then back to him, then back down to his chest, then once more at his face. She was absolutely mortified and released him instantly and tried to wrap her arms about herself to cling to whatever dignity she felt she needed to display.

She cleared her throat and they both tried to look at literally anything except the other person in front of them. "So… um. Ok. Uh..." her eyes flickered to him, he looked just as embarrassed as she felt. "Um. Sorry. About that" she waved her hand and gestured to the space between them. "Let’s eh, try that again. What are you doing here?"

Ember glanced at her then seemed to be far more interested in the tall potted plant next to her door.

"I was looking for a particular person? Um, I thought she lived here, but I’m guessing now that I got the wrong door." He went on to explain who he was looking for and described her to the woman in front of him. She looked like she was ready to cry, or die from the embarrassing mix up. She hugged her arms around herself tighter.

“No, I think I know who you’re talking about, but she isn’t even in this hallway. She, I’m pretty sure is like, 3 more halls down, Dewdrop."

"Ember." He corrected. The woman simply scowled and turned to go back into her rooms.

"Ugh, no, my name is Jenny!" She went to close the door behind her, but Ember had his hand out ready to stop her.

"No, I meant mine!" He blurted out at her, a little too quickly and haughtily. "But I would very much like to-“ yet again he was cut off by a door shutting in his face. Ember sighed and hung his head again. “What the fuck even, Dew,” he thought to himself. He wasn’t surprised that everyone called him by his nickname instead, but he was caught off guard by being rejected. That was something he was hardly used to.

He collected himself and huffed out a breath, straightening himself. “Ok, lets get back on track.” Ember looked down the rest of the hall, then back to where he had come from. “Three halls over... Fuck! That girl didn’t mention which way they were over… fuckin’ Jenny.” He made a mental note to never give that woman even so much as a glance in the future for this minor inconvenience. He huffed again and set his shoulders as he tucked his hands into the pockets of his sweatpants. He trudged down the hallway the way he had come and then down the opposite hall. It was useless really, they all looked the same. Same ugly paint over the same ugly plain walls. The same gold numbers on the same faux wooden doors. He growled in irritation. He cursed under his breath and then shoved the back door open with his foot, not bothering to even move his hands from his pockets.  
Perhaps the next building would be the right one.

After two more very distressed sisters and more doors slammed in his face, he was still no closer to finding his sister of sin. Ember hadn’t felt so frustrated in quite a time. He honestly almost felt like crying. There was no point to even keep looking. Surely by now she would certainly be asleep. He shoved the heavy door open to the grounds outside. The sky was an inky black and littered with thick clouds. The small crescent moon was partially obscured by a particularly dark cloud line. He sighed and started walking aimlessly on the grounds, weaving this way and that through the stone paths in the gardens.

Before he knew it he was looking up at a great stone statue of a winged Lucifer. He looked up at the granite and rubbed a clawed hand over the foot at the base of the statue. He didn’t know why people did it, only that they did, and supposedly it was like a small thing to bring the fortune of the Fallen One. He sighed and glanced over his shoulder to the church, then back up at the statue. “Don’t suppose you’ve seen my little sister have you?” he snickered to himself under his breath and turned to go back to his lonesome room amongst the rest of his band mates.

Ember hoped that none of them would randomly be up and about at this hour, but even he knew better than to hold his breath over it. Ghouls were well known to be nocturnal, even if they were made to keep day hours at the church. If any of his band mates saw him and guessed why he was up he figured he would never hear the end of how weak little Dewdrop couldn’t even deal with one little nightmare. He scowled and chewed on the inside of his lip. In truth, they would probably all be sympathetic with him, except maybe the air ghoulettes- they hated to have any of their sleep interrupted.

He pulled his hair down from his ponytail and slipped the hair tie back over his wrist as he hopped up the stairs to the large carved wooden doors. Not even he understood why the fucking abbey complex was set up the way it was, and he had been topside for a couple hundred years. Some of the siblings lived in dorms inside, some were in weird apartments on the grounds, and some didn’t even live on site at all. With this thought, his heart sank. What if she was one of the odd ones out who lived in town? His brow furrowed as if in deep thought and he rounded the corner just beyond one of the music rooms.

Maybe he should just get some extra practices in? He had a key to the room the band used to practice and he knew no one would hear him as he unleashed his frustrations out on his guitar and stomped around the soundproofed room. He fiddled with the keys and jangled them in his pocket as he stopped in front of music room 3. The lights were all out and nobody else was in there from what he could tell. Ember heaved a grumble; he pulled the keys out and flicked through them until the one with the black “3” on it could be seen. He fit the key into the slot and turned, opening the door with a metallic click.

Ember fumbled around the black soundproofing on the wall as he tried to find the switch for the lights. Eventually he found it with his fingers and slid the dimmer switch up, first a little too fast and the lights blinded him. He shielded his eyes and cursed as he immediately flipped it all the way back to pitch black. “Fucking stupid ass useless Satan forsaken bullshit fucking idiot decided these lights were ever fucking good I swear to fuck…” Ember groaned and grumbled more profanities and slowly, very slowly, moved the dimmer switch to an acceptable lighting.

He strode over to the wall that housed all the instruments, and picked up his baby. The white lacquered fantomen gleamed in the dimmed light. He didn’t bother with a chair and just plopped on the carpeted floor and began tuning. As much as this was usually something he enjoyed doing to clear his mind and to just let things out, he couldn’t get settled in with the guitar in his lap. His hair dipped n front of him and obscured the light from his view. He closed his eyes and breathed deeply. He held the air in his lungs for a few seconds and exhaled slowly through his barely parted lips. Ember repeated this a few times to try to will him brain to relax more.

“Ah, fuck it, I can’t even focus like this,” Ember grasped the neck of the guitar and fell back onto the floor. He rubbed the smooth body of the guitar in lazy circles. He closed his eyes and tried to clear his mind of anything but the feeling of the glossy texture underneath his fingertips. It was cool at first and then warmed to his touch. He glided his fingers down the tight coils of the strings and rubbed them absentmindedly. It was like feeling the muscles under someone’s skin, they carried memory and he knew all the perfect places to touch to make them sing for him. He sighed deeply and brought himself back up into a sitting position. “Might as well just go back to fuckin’ bed.”

Ember replaced the beautiful guitar back onto its rack spot and strode back over to the door, slapping the light switch as he made his way out the door. He locked it before he slammed it shut a bit harder than he meant to. He winced slightly and clenched his eyes shut. It was a human reaction to jump at loud sounds late at night, and to also try not to be the cause of the loud sounds. He wondered if he had been around them all too much as he glared at the closed door. Ember shoved his hands back into his pockets and started back up the hallway and turning a corner towards the band’s chambers.

He collided with something solid, hard, and cold? Whatever it was clattered to the wooden floor and groaned. He looked down to see the dark outline of a lumpy something and an upside down bowl. Ember blinked a few times as the lumpy thing moved and tossed its head back and began to sob.

“You jerrrrrk! Why wouldn’t you just look whe-her-here you were going?!” the silvery, upset voice cried out.

It was a very sad woman’s voice that caught him completely off guard. He reached down and offered a hand to help the poor thing. She ignored it as she slowly tilted back the bowl to reveal the damage. Ice cream had splatted against the floor and dripped from the bowl. She dropped it right-side up and brought her hands to her face to wipe away her tears. Ember was certainly in over his head and had very little idea what to do. He knelt down before the crying sister and tried to place a hand on her trembling shoulder. He hesitated and pulled his hand back, thinking he shouldn’t touch her without asking first, lest she take her wrath out on him and tear him a new one. He certainly was durable, but women were absolutely terrifying at the wreckage they would bring down. 

It was then that the cold dampness from the ice cream on his shirt reminded him of its presence. It was going to be a sticky mess and one he very much wouldn’t like to deal with on his stomach. He unthinkingly lifted his shirt off by the back of his collar and heaved it forward over his head, balling it up. He sat back on his heels and simply stared at the sister.

“I really wanted that ice cream…” she sniffled, looking incredibly devastated.


	2. Strawberry Revel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dewdrop found who he was looking for at least.

He held his shirt to his chest and simply stared at the girl in front of him. He blinked a few times trying to figure out what to say, if anything or just wait for her to continue on. When she didn’t he cleared his throat and muttered a very small and pathetic ‘sorry’. She looked up at him finally. It took a moment for the realization to hit and Ember could practically see the wheels turning as she finally connected the dots and recognized him.

“YOU!” she yelled out incredulously. The fire ghoul fell back on his ass in surprise and clutched his sticky ice cream covered shirt closer as if it would protect him. “What are you even doing up? Why are you out wandering the halls this late at night?” The sister of sin picked up the bowl and spoon before standing up. Her fluffy robe had parted slightly and Ember stared at first the bowl in her grasp before looking up to meet her gaze. 

“Uh… well,” he began. “I was actually hoping I would run into you.”

“Well that you certainly did,” she put her hand on her hip. “What did you want me for, Dew?” she turned and headed back up the hallway she was coming from. 

“Wait, what about the ice cream, we can’t just leave it,” he looked to the melting mess of what appeared to be cookies and cream ice cream slowly winding through the grout between the stone tiles.

The sister of sin never broke her stride, or even bothered to look back at him as she called over her shoulder. “I wasn’t planning to, but I don’t have anything to get it up with. I don’t normally carry paper towels or anything in my bathrobe pockets. Do you?” Ember looked at her back, sheepishly, and didn’t reply. “I didn’t think so. I’m heading to the closest bathroom to grab some and get it up. Help me will you.”

Ember knew this wasn’t a request and he got to his feet and trotted to catch up to the young woman. She was a well rounded average woman, probably in her mid to late 20s he guessed, maybe even early 30s, but no more. Her hair was up in a messy bun and he couldn’t help himself as he allowed his eyes to roam all over her backside.

She spun suddenly and thrust the bowl into his chest causing him to yelp at the chilly glass. She smirked in spite of herself. “Hold this,” the woman grabbed the door to the women’s room and heaved it open, slipping inside, leaving Ember standing there holding the bowl with a bewildered look on his face. He stood there in the empty hallway blinking for a few seconds staring at the spot she had disappeared from. 

There was little light emitting from the dimly lit sconces set into the walls along the corridor. The most light it saw was during the day when the sun shone through the large windows. There really were no overhead lights along this wing of the church, just a few sparse chandeliers and sconces set into depressions in the stone walls. It was miraculous that the clergy hadn’t sprung for renovations, but why would they spare money like that on lighting when the head of the church required five-hundred American-dollar leather gloves? 

Ember still held onto the bowl in the exact way it was thrust onto him when the sister emerged from the bathroom carrying a roll of paper towels under one arm and a handful of damp ones. She didn’t even glance at Ember when she moved back to the ever-melting ice cream. Ember followed on her heels like a puppy.

The sister, whose name still eluded Ember, bent down and started to unravel a length of the paper towels and set to work cleaning up the goopy mess. “You are going to help me, so get down here, Dew.”

Ember nodded to no one in particular and crouched down and took up another length of the paper towels to gather the remaining scoops of the mess. They worked in tandem to clean it up and wipe away any sticky residue from the tiles. 

“It’s not perfect, but it’ll do until the next time they mop I guess,” the sister said as she gathered up the soiled paper towels and bundled them up and set them in the bowl to dispose of when they neared a trashcan. “Do you wanna come with me back to the kitchens and get another bowl? You said something about you looking for me anyway. Might as well get some ice cream yourself for your troubles.”

Ember held onto the bowl and nodded, following her lead. It was calming how they fell into step with each other. The sister shoved her hands into her robe pockets and led them through the long corridor and turned onto another one before trying to talk to him again.

“So… you said something about how you were hoping to run into me? And you did, so what did you want to see me for?” she chanced a look over to Ember who was looking at her, his eyes catching all the candlelight the sconces offered. She blushed slightly and turned away from him before she hoped he wouldn’t notice. Ember took a few moments before he answered her.

“I… um…” he started and then cleared his throat. “I had… I had a nightmare.”

The sister stopped mid-step and nearly tripped over the other foot and fell but managed to catch herself. Ember kept walking for a few more steps before stopping and turning to face her. Her mouth hung open as she stared openly at him.

Ember was very aware of his breathing at that moment and he pulled the glass bowl closer to his shirtless chest as if it might somehow shield him from her oncoming taunts. He was absolutely positive this was all a terrible fucking idea now and that he would much rather have just gone immediately back to his own bed than to stand here and withstand the ridicule she was about to unleash on him. He wasn’t sure he could take it without retaliating against the sister. He was rather fond of her, even if he really couldn’t remember her name.

“Ghouls have nightmares?!” she screeched at him. Ember nearly dropped the bowl and the used paper towels to the floor as he stared at her. His eyes glittered in the candlelight. He continued to just stare at her incredulously.  
“Y-yesss??” he looked at her quizzically, raising an eyebrow. He wasn’t sure if she would start laughing at any moment or if she was honestly being serious right now. His eyes darted around them just in case someone else was around and this was some horribly set up prank at his expense. “Yes. Why wouldn’t we have nightmares?” he took the defensive a bit preemptively. “What, you think that humans are the only creatures relegated to having nightmares? Even animals can have them too!” it came across a little bit more intense and accusatory than he meant for it, but he still stared her down.

“I-I’m sorry, Dew,” the woman removed her hands from her pockets and put her hands up to him to show she meant no harm. “I just really had no idea that demons were capable of having nightmares. I mean, I guess it makes sense, you literally have been to Hell and back so I guess that gives you plenty to have nightmares about,” her voice wavered a bit as she spoke in a rush to get all the words out as quickly as she could. She took a tentative step towards him, her hands still out in front of her.

Ember snickered to himself mostly. “Oh sister, you have no idea,” he looked down at the bowl in his clawed grasp before sheepishly darting his eyes up at her and then back down. He turned away from her and called over his shoulder at her. “Come on, let’s get you that ice cream, yeah? It’s my fault that I uh, ruined your first bowl so I’ll fix this next one for you.” He started back towards the kitchens, effectively cutting short the conversation inadvertently. He didn’t even realize he had left behind his ice cream covered shirt back at the scene of the crime.

They walked along in silence to the kitchens. The sister not bothering to pester him about his nightmare even though she was highly curious what demons even could have nightmares about. She let her mind drift over a few scenarios: blood and gore and torn limbs and visceral flesh being ripped and flayed from bodies, vats of boiling oil and the screams of the damned, red emptiness and dry desert heats causing death by dehydration over and over again. She shuddered and pulled her arms around herself trying to push the thoughts of eternal torment away from her mind. She wanted to reach out and hold his hand, not for his benefit but her own. It was a small action but so very comforting for her.

Not too long after, they reached the church’s kitchens. The double swinging doors were framed with massive oak and pine beams with light carvings in the wood. At the top was a granite or marble slab with something written on it. Neither had ever paid it too much attention to actually know what was on the white and grey rock but they weren’t going to decipher it in such dim lighting. He pushed open one of the doors and held it for the sister to enter. With her clearing the threshold, Ember reached around blindly on the wall for the light switch. He was prepared this time for the blinding glare that would no doubt reflect from the chrome and stainless steel surfaces surrounding them as he flipped the switch.

Ember dumped the used paper towels into the trashcan by the double doors and moved to set the bowl into the sink. If he were a better ghoul, he would rinse the bowl out and reuse it, but fuck that. He was well beyond the dish-washing chore and he couldn’t care less about the poor fool who had the duty the following day. After all, they had shown him the same kindness when he was on that shitty chore.

He moved around the long stainless counter and moved to get two more bowls from the stack and turned around to look at the sister. In the rather harsh incandescent light Ember could clearly see her features now. Her skin was so soft looking, and he couldn’t help but swoon slightly at the sight of her, even if her skin was a somewhat unnatural colour because of the lighting. 

“So another bowl of cookies and cream?” he pointed the bowl in her direction before turning away and setting the bowls down on the counter before walking off to the giant walk-in freezer. Once, when Ember had been on kitchen duty many, many, years ago in his long service of the ministry, a sibling of sin thought it would be funny to lock the fire ghoul in the freezer. Apparently this was before the invention of the inner release to the door and so he was stuck at the mercy of whomever decided to be kind enough to let the poor ghoul out. He had melted some of the ice and provisions inside in his anger and frustration, but found himself to be too cold to really do much damage. There wasn’t really anything he could have set ablaze that would sustain a fire until someone let him out.

These worries never plagued him anymore seeing as how the inner door had a handle that would easily allow him to escape if someone were to try to lock him in again. 

“No, actually, it was mint chocolate chip…” the sister said softly to him. She was still slightly apprehensive of him, even though they had been in close contact on a handful of previous occasions. But the fire ghoul was known to be temperamental if you said something out of the way to him. Or maybe even just correcting him, she wasn’t really sure. She thought he replied something but she couldn’t be sure as she didn’t follow him into the freezer. She wasn’t very fond of being colder than she had to be. 

Ember emerged with the tub of mint chocolate chip and another of strawberry revel and came back to sit them on the counter next to the bowls. He scratched his head and tried to remember where the scoop was, when it occurred to him it was probably in the sink since she had already come down to fix herself a own previously. Sure enough, when he checked, there it was, laying in the deep sink basin.

He washed it off quickly and shook the excess water from the stainless scoop. He looked over at the sister and grinned. “Wanna see a neat trick?”

The sister nodded and backed away from him, unsure of what this trick would consist of, considering his grin was fairly wide. 

Ember wiggled his fingers over the metal scoop a few times before resting it in his hand as he popped the lid to the tub of mint ice cream. He looked over to her and licked his lips, grinning ear to ear. The scoop cut through the ice cream as if it were a hot knife through butter. Though, it would be just as accurate to say it cut like a hot metal scoop through, well, ice cream. Being a fire ghoul had its small perks. The sister stared at the perfect scoop of ice cream and then to his hand, following the long line of taught muscles and sinew up his arm and to his face. He was positively beaming at her. She couldn’t help but to giggle and smile at his trick.

“So, how many scoops you want? I don’t know how many you dropped on me earlier,” with this a look of realization crossed his mind. “Shit, my shirt…,” it dawned on him that he had left behind the now-stiff-with-ice-cream shirt back in the hallway. He had set it down to help clean up the mess.

“Oh, Dew, I’m sorry. I don’t know why I thought you still had it. I can go back and grab it real quick, it won’t take but a minute,” she motioned to the door with her thumb as she took a step backwards, still facing the ghoul, to head in that direction.

“No, it’s alright, I’ll swing by and grab it on my way-,” he cut himself off. His entire reason for being out and about in the first place was to go find this sister of sin and… ‘and what, ask her to cuddle?’ Ember finished the thought up. “Um actually, sister?” he plopped another scoop of ice cream next to the other one in her bowl.

“Hm?” she prompted when he didn’t continue.

“Um,” he fumbled over the right words in his mind before he accidentally said the wrong thing and she laughed in his face. Though, she didn’t earlier, so it gave him a small incentive to continue. “I was actually looking for you, um, I wanted to…” he caught himself again. It was frustrating to just know the words and your own tongue betraying you by not just saying them.

The woman raised an eyebrow at him as she reached out to touch his shoulder. His skin was much warmer than she thought it would be for him not wearing a shirt, and also being in the freezer just a few moments ago. She reached out with the other hand to take the bowl of ice cream away from him before he could add yet another scoop. There were already 4 in there, any more and she wasn’t sure even she could eat it all.

Ember huffed out a deep sigh and closed his eyes, breathing in deeply, silently, and jabbing the scoop back into the mint ice cream so he wouldn’t slam it into the counter. He began again, this time with slightly more nerve. “I was looking for you to ask if you could help me with my nightmare,” Ember kept his eyes closed and waited for the woman’s response. 

It was not the one he was hoping to receive. She stifled a giggle. 

“Um, I’m not sure what you think I do around here, but I can’t just make you not have nightmares, Dew,” she giggled as she walked over to the silverware cubbies. She reached out for a spoon and then looked back up to see Ember staring at her, crestfallen. She dropped the spoon into the bowl and walked back over to him, setting the bowl down and reaching out to touch his shoulder again. “If I could do that, then I wouldn’t be up this late either, and I would definitely be way, waaayy more popular,” the woman smiled and reached for the ice cream scoop.

The thought registered into Ember’s mind now. Why didn’t he bother asking her why she was up so late? Ugh, he was so stupid.

“So, wait, why are you up? Did you have a nightmare too?” Ember stepped back to give the sister a little bit more space. He watched her hesitate for just a second as she grabbed the scoop out of the tub of mint. What he couldn’t see was the split-second her eyes glossed over as she remembered why she was out and roaming around the abbey.

“Yeah, um… Yeah, something like that,” she moved over to the sink and washed off the scoop and shook the excess water from it before returning back to the counter. Ember made to reach out for the scoop, but pulled his hand back when he noticed the way the woman’s face had fallen slightly. She tensed up and her shoulders had rounded in on themselves. She reached over and grabbed the empty bowl for Ember’s strawberry ice cream. “How many scoops you want?” she didn’t look up.

“Just 3 please,” Ember said softly. He wanted to reach out and stroke her hair, to wrap his arms around her and bundle her up in a blanket and warm her up. Though, he couldn’t quite put his hand on the ‘why’ part. Ember was absolutely not known for his comfort, not by a long shot.

The sister lobbed three hefty scoops of the pink and red-streaked ice cream into the bowl and chunked the scoop into the sink, not even caring how much racket it made. The shift in her demeanor worried Ember. He wondered if someone had tried to do something to hurt her during the night.

“Hey um,” he began, but the words fizzled on his tongue before he could get them out. He wanted to say that if someone had hurt her that he would go and take care of it, or if even she was just worried about it he could take care of that too. Instead he just mumbled a small ‘thanks’ and left it at that. She hopped up on the counter and began to dig in to her bowl in silence. Ember retrieved a spoon.

“Mind if I join you?”

The sister gestured to the empty kitchen and nowhere in particular. “Be my guest,” she swallowed another spoonful.

They stayed like that for a good while; the only sounds were the slinking of their metal spoons against the cold ceramic bowls. A scrape here or there, but that was it really. Ember kept looking over to her, but she sat slumped slightly, and kept her eyes trained on either her bowl or in front of her. Whatever it was that had kept her awake, he didn’t like it. She finished her bowl first and set it behind her and to the side. It was then she noted that they had left the tubs of ice cream out. They had begun to melt and the condensation on the outside had dripped down into a mild puddle around the two tubs.

“Shit, forgot the ice cream,” she hopped off from the counter and reached to grab them. Ember coughed and tried to clear his throat after he choked on his spoonful too hastily trying to tell her that he would take care of it. She glanced up at him and smirked at the sight of the spoon still in his mouth and Ember trying to hold it together, while clearly having a difficult time.

“Here,” she pulled the spoon from his mouth. “You’ll have an easier time if you remove the spoon first, idiot,” she laughed. Ember was blushing at this, but the sister couldn’t tell since his face was already red from coughing. 

“There, see? Better already.”

Ember was only slightly better, but he nodded and still tried to toughen up in front of her. The sister grabbed the tubs and resealed them. The picked them up by the handles and started to go put them back in the freezer when Ember latched a hold of one of the handles. The sister tugged on it and gave Ember a strange look. 

“I’ve got it, Dew, let go,” she smirked and pulled the plastic tub back. “It’s just ice cream.” She knew the ghoul was a little strange but she was unsure of him acting the way he was. She was fully capable of putting up two things of ice cream by herself, but when she went to hold both of the tubs so she could open the door, Ember, who had silently hopped down from the counter had already moved to open the door for her. She rolled her eyes, but thanked the ghoul anyway.

Once they were squared away and she bundled her robe back around herself and tied it, she moved to set the dishes in the sink. It had gotten all too quiet, she thought to herself. She glanced up at Ember as she reached for the bowls. Ember was wringing his hands, trying to look nonchalant.

She moved the empty bowls and used spoons to the sink with the rest of the dirty dishes that had piled up from since the kitchens officially closed for the night. She wondered who else had come down here previously and what the hell they even could have used two frying pans, 5 plates, 3 forks, a spoon, a juicer, and a cheese grater for. She huffed out a laugh and turned to face Ember. His dark gold-green eyes were already looking at her.

“So, Dewdrop… what did you want me to do to help with your nightmare, anyway?” she felt poorly for just dismissing him previously. “I mean, I don’t know any spells or potion making or whatever to try to help that way, so I ca-“

“Cuddles.”

The single word instantly took any and all thoughts from her mind. Her tongue was still paused in her mouth about to make an “n” sound and her lips were parted still. She blinked a few times before tilting her head as she mulled over the word. Cuddles. 

“I’m sorry, did you say-“

“Cuddles. Yes. I went to try to find your dorm and I had got lost. And after several mishaps with other sisters I had just given up on finding the right one tonight. So I went into the music room and tried to pay for a while, and then I got frustrated and then I left and bumped into you, and you know the rest,” his words all tumbled out too fast. He couldn’t stand to look at her anymore in his embarrassment. Besides, the rack of kitchen utensils was suddenly far more fascinating. “Pull yourself together, Dew. Fuck! You even don’t mind her calling you that stupid nickname! Ugh…”

Finally the sister closed her mouth and stared at him. “I would very much like that, Dew. But, eh, you forgot that I lived upstairs?” she pointed a finger upwards at the ceiling and smirked. “You’ve been to my room before right? I know we flipped through some of my records the last time you were up there. You even said you thought it was ridiculous that I had a copy of that dumb Bruce Willis album.”

At that moment, the memories of sitting with the sister on her floor with dusty record covers and 45’s scattered about flooded Ember’s brain. He clearly had recalled following the sister from her post at the library desk up to her room above it. He smacked his hand against his forehead and heard the sister of sin snickering at him. Of course! Now he remembered that she lived above the main floor with all the other librarians in this section. What’s better, her name came along with the visual of the woman’s room.

“Olivia! Yes… I, fuck… I can’t believe-,” Ember nearly doubled over from laughing so hard so suddenly. He fell completely over to the kitchen floor and continued to howl with laughter.

“Dew! Dew, come on,” she stooped down and tried to pat him on his arms and shoulders. “You need to quiet down, someone will hear us and we’ll get in trouble!” She tried to tug him up by his arm, but failed. He was damn near rolling.

Ember continued to laugh and absentmindedly grabbed one of her hands in his. He gave it a squeeze as he tried to calm down. The concerned look on her face caused another sudden burst of giggles from him and he tilted his head back, practically cackling. Finally the fit subsided and he wiped a tear of laughter from his eyes. Ember nodded and seemed to realize that he had been effectively holding her hand for a few moments now. He looked down at her hand and then traveled up her arm to look at her. Olivia’s face was still panicked somewhat but she mostly just looked pretty, to him at least. 

“You good?” she cocked an eyebrow up at him. Dew tried very hard to stifle his giggles by biting his lip. He nodded up at her. Olivia tugged on his hand and stood up, but still leaning over the fire ghoul. She offered her other hand out to him. “Here, lemme help you up.”

Ember took her hand and planted his feet up under himself and jumped up with a little bounce. He looked into her light brown eyes, smiled, and squeezed her hands gently before letting go of them and pulling her into a tight hug. She instinctively drew her arms up to cup his shoulder blades.

“Dew,” she squeaked out. “Dew, you’re strangling me.” Ember squished her even tighter for a second then released his hold but didn’t drop his arms from around the woman. They were about equal height, but the sister had a couple of inches on him. She took a large gulp of air and released it against his neck as she tried to fill her lungs back up with oxygen Ember squeezed out of her. They stood together, silently, for a few moments just holding each other. Sister Olivia smiled gently.

“You wanna come back to my room with me and cuddle for a while? If we’re lucky, we might even get a chance to sleep in; what do you say?” she cocked her head towards the swinging doors.

“Yeah, I would very much like that,” he dropped his arms from around her shoulders and took one of her hands in his and gave it a delicate squeeze. She was so comforting and warm and soft. Ember was practically melting; except he wasn’t. He was shirtless in the cold kitchens and remembered this fact as a shiver ran through him. Even his nipple rings were cold. Olivia seemed to notice as well as Ember’s nipples had pursed up into peaks. She blushed and Ember grinned. He liked making people have that reaction. He was going to have quite the night with the sister if this was all it took to make her blush.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have plans to continue if there was enough interest.   
> Thanks for reading.


	3. Cuddles?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We finally see our duo heading up to the Sister's chambers. Maybe we even find out why she was up and about to begin with.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please note this chapter contains a discussion of past abuse/violence. I don't think I was very graphic with it, but I'm going to add a trigger warning just in case. If this subject matter is sensitive for you, please do not read.

Olivia motioned at his bare chest and forced her gaze up to meet Ember’s. “Do you, um, want to wear my robe?” She tugged on the fluffy collar and pulled it in his direction to add emphasis to her offer. 

Ember grinned with a wide toothy smile and shook his head. “Nah, you keep warm and toasty. I can warm myself up,” he pointed at himself. “Fire ghoul, remember?” 

The sister turned and looked down at her feet and mumbled something that vaguely resembled ‘Oh, yeah, right.’ Ember gently flexed his hand and pulled the sister forward towards the doors, taking the lead. He was positive that he remembered the way this time. As he pushed open one of the double stainless steel swinging doors and ushered Olivia through it, a thought occurred to him. If he was right, they would be going down the hall a little ways and making a right, towards the back staircase.

“Sister?” 

“Yeah, Dew?” Olivia looked over at him.

“Why were you out by the music rooms? The closest line to the kitchens isn’t down that way, it’s down here,” Ember pointed a claw in the general direction of where they were headed. Olivia’s grip tightened slightly. So slight, in fact, it was almost imperceptible by the ghoul. 

“Oh, um, well…” she stumbled over her words, trying to figure out exactly what to say that wouldn’t make her seem too odd or strange. Then again, Ember was out and about wondering around himself, wasn’t he? So that would make him just as weird and strange as her, right? Olivia inhaled deeply before puffing it out to steady her voice. “If you must know, I too had a bad dream. You asked about why I was out and about earlier. I… I have nightmares sometimes, with um, sleep paralysis. Sometimes are better than others, and sometimes it sends me into a full blown panic attack. So, uh, yeah. When I was able to get up and calm down, I came downstairs and got some ice cream.”

Ember rolled this over in his mind a few times before he could put his finger on what it was that hadn’t added up for him. Bless him, he may not have been gifted with height, or strikingly good looks, or common sense most days, but he did know when someone wasn’t being totally honest with him.

“Yeah, but you didn’t go straight back up to your room to eat it. And it looked like it hadn’t been touched when I ran into you. Well other than a few spoonfuls maybe, the spoon was in your mouth and fell when I knocked into you,” Ember said as he walked beside her. He almost pulled his hand out of her grip when she had stopped walking and he took a few steps ahead. He looked down to where their hands were clasped. Doubt started swirling in his stomach. She must have been going to see someone else then. “I must have interrupted her going to see someone else and now she thinks … fuck I don’t know what she thinks,” Ember let go of her hand and ran it through his hair. 

Olivia put her hands into her robe pockets and stared at the fire ghoul. She wasn’t really sure what to think or how to really explain. It wasn’t that she had done something bad or wrong per se, but it was just a little strange even for a sister of sin, in a Satanic abbey. She couldn’t help if her interests were a little on the more macabre side.

Ember had tilted his head waiting for the sister to say something. She took a few small steps forward and in a completely unexpected move, laid her forehead against the ghouls shoulder. Ember’s heart skipped a few beats before he instinctively wrapped his arms loosely around the woman. He was thoroughly confused now. He moved a clawed hand slowly up to pet her hair as a sign of comfort. Olivia turned her head to where she was nuzzling her face into Ember’s neck. She trembled slightly, and then it was as if someone had opened up a flood gate somewhere behind Olivia’s eyes. Her hands shot up and immediately gripped at the hot skin of Ember’s shoulders.  
Bewildered was not even the word. But, he knew better than to try to pry more out of her at the moment. For now, he resolved himself to just hold the sobbing woman in his arms. “This isn’t exactly how I pictured this turning out…,” he sighed and tilted his head to press a gentle kiss to Olivia’s hair. He shushed her and continued to pet her hair over and down her shoulders soothingly as he tried his best to reassure her that she was ok and safe.

When her shoulders had stopped heaving and her breath wasn’t coming out in ragged huffs and shaky sobs, Ember slowly peeled himself away from Olivia’s upper body. H still held her close, but turned to that he could face her and wipe her face clear of tears. Her skin was blotchy and puffy and he was very certain that she had unintentionally gotten snot on him. He smiled to himself at such a thought. “And they think we are the gross ones sometimes…”

“Hey, it’s ok. You don’t have to say anything,” Ember said softly. “We can just go on up to your room, ok?” he pulled Olivia into a warm hug, though he was just using a little spark of his elemental ability to make it extra warm for her comfort. Olivia swiped at her face with her robe sleeve and nodded, smiling weakly. She laced her fingers back through his and turned to make her way back up towards her room. She wasn’t pulling or dragging Ember along, but Ember did stay intentionally a step behind her, wanting her to have some space. The rest of the walk was spent in tender silence as they ascended the staircase. 

Olivia rooted around in her pocket for her set of keys as they approached her apartment-like dorm room. If Ember remembered correctly it was the third one on the right. Olivia let go of Ember’s hand and walked up to the fourth door on the left. Ember chuckled, mostly to himself. “Wrong again, Dew.”

She slotted the key into the lock and turned the knob. She pushed the door open and took a step back, gesturing Dew to go ahead of her. He motioned back for her to go on inside.

“Ladies first,” he bowed his head slightly and rolled his hands for emphasis. Olivia rolled her blood-shot eyes in turn and walked on in, snagging her keys from the lock on the way past the door. She reached over and flipped on the light. Ember had prepared himself for the harsh glare of the more economical led lights, but was slightly and pleasant surprised when a dim lamp came to life. With a dull whirring the ceiling fan sprang to life above Olivia’s head and she tossed her keys to the table just inside the door. She moved to shrug off her bathrobe and flung it over the back of an old well worn chair before settling onto the couch. Ember had followed closely behind her but wasn’t one hundred percent sure if she wanted him to sit close to her or somewhere else. After all, she did curl up on the couch, so surely she would want him to sit on the couch with her. 

“Do you want some coffee or tea or something?” Olivia asked as Ember still internally debated the seating arrangements. It wasn’t as if they mattered but he wanted to give her space until she could comfortably explain what exactly had happened in the lower corridor a few moments ago. He looked down at the sister as he remained standing.

“Um, whatever you want, I guess? I mean, if you’re making something, sure, I’ll take a cup,” he blurted out awkwardly. He looked down at the hardwood floor and dug the toe of his house shoe against it. He glanced over at Olivia, who had gotten up from the couch and wandered around the half-wall separating the living room and kitchen. She paused in front of the cabinet between the sink and the window, opening it up. 

She took a deep breath, “We have blueberry, raspberry, ginseng, sleepy time, green tea, green tea with lemon, green tea with lemon and honey, liver disaster, ginger with honey, ginger without honey, vanilla almond, white truffle, blueberry chamomile, vanilla walnut, constant comment and... earl grey,” she looked over her shoulder at Ember who looked even more bewildered than she had anticipated. She couldn’t help but laugh at his cute, confused face. “You don’t remember? Scott Pilgrim? You know, the movie we had watched one of the times you were up here?” Olivia tilted her head and randomly reached into the cabinet pulling out a little box of tea. 

Ember was so very lost. He stared at Olivia with his mouth open just a smidge. He wasn’t even sure some of the words out of her mouth were even describing tea flavours at all. Not only that, he noticed that the box of tea she pulled out wasn’t even one she had even listed off. It was country peach. He watched the woman turn back to the kitchen counter. With her back to him, his mind caught up with him and he laughed a little. Ember stepped into the kitchen and took a seat at the table, facing her.

Olivia reached out towards the coffee maker and took what appeared to be the remains of this morning’s coffee grounds and filter, chunking them into the trash bag she had hanging from the drawer pull on the lower cabinet. She took the coffee carafe and rinsed it out in the sink before filling it up and pouring water up to the fill line in the coffee pot. It wasn’t the best way to make tea, but it was effective nonetheless. She opened the lid and placed two teabags into the carafe and set it back in its place. Olivia pressed the button to start the coffee maker to brew the hot water and make the tea. She then turned towards Ember and pointed up to the wall behind him.

“You wanna pick your coffee mug, Dew?” Ember turned his head to look back at the wall which was littered with mug racks. They were in all honesty very kitschy if he was to describe it. Not a single one of them matched. He picked up one that caught his eye. It was half of a frog on one side, a logo for an aquarium and then the other half of the frog on the opposite side. He plucked it from its peg and turned back to Olivia. She nodded. “Good choice.” 

Ember set the mug down on the table as Olivia chose one from the dish rack beside the sink. It was white and pink with a little modern kissy face with hearts as the lips on it. He thought it was very cute, and perfectly matched Sister Olivia. He cleared his throat before speaking up.

“You have milk and sugar right?” Ember asked.

Olivia made a face, but nodded. “Yeah, I don’t have a whole lot because I don’t drink it or use it much, but I’ve got some milk. And yeah, I’ve got sugar and honey and honey powder, if you wanted to try it.”

“Honey powder?” he had never heard of it before. Olivia explained that it was something she had picked up at a market because she was curious about it. She wasn’t entirely sure how it was made with cactuses however. “Yeah, lemme try it,” Ember decided. Olivia moved over to open the cabinet with the tea and coffee and pulled out a small zip sealed bag and tossed it over to Ember. He turned it over in his hands a few times before he opened it up and just stuck his hand inside to get a bit to taste test it. This made Olivia laugh a bit.

“You know I could have just gotten you a spoon, dude,” she giggled. “You didn’t have to go all in like that.” She watched Ember lick his finger free of the dry grainy substance. It would appear that he had liked it by the way he grinned and smacked his lips. It was rather cute, if she were being honest. The sounds of the coffee maker finally brewing the hot water sputtered to life and she went to sit at the table with Ember. 

They continued with small talk for a few moments until the ‘plibppt ppbbt puhhhhshh’ from the coffee maker told them it was finished with an almost sighing hiss. Olivia swung her legs to the side of her chair and planted her hand firmly on the table to get up, when Ember sprung up from his chair and settled a hand on her shoulder.

“I got it, just sit,” he said and picked up her mug with his and they clinked together in his hand. He stepped over to the counter and reached for the pitcher from the coffee maker. “Wait, does it need to steep? I’ve never made my tea like this before,” he looked over to Sister Olivia. 

“You can just take a teabag out if you want and put it in your own mug. I’m honestly too tired to really think about steeping times. Well, not really tired, but just enough where I can’t brain properly.”

This earned a cackle from Ember who was pouring the amber liquid into his mug. It was nowhere close to perfect and that was fine with him for right now. It was warm and comforting and he was sharing it with Olivia in her apartment. He chose not to remove either teabags from the carafe and set it back onto its little base. 

Olivia had gotten up to pluck two clean spoons from the dish tray, placing one next to Embers froggy mug. She opened the cabinet door again and proceeded to heap two spoonfuls of honey into her own mug. Ember had padded over to the fridge and sighed with dismay that the only milk she had gone bad two days ago. He pulled it from the shelf and gently shut the door with his foot. 

“Your milk is soured, so I’m gonna just dump it out,” he opened up the carton and started to pour it down the drain.

“Sorry,” she hummed as she swirled the honey in her mug to dissolve it. It clinked happily against the ceramic. “I did tell you I don’t really drink it or use it much.”

“Yeah, you did,” Ember tossed the empty carton in the trash bin. He picked up his spoon and tea, and went back to the table and sat down. He dipped his spoon into the bag of honey powder and added in three spoonfuls of the stuff into his mug before he thought better of it. “Um, how much of this are you supposed to use?”

“I usually only put two, but you can add it to your own tastes,” she sipped on her tea and slid back into her chair. She had huddled in on herself again, Ember noted. He didn’t really want to force her to give him any answers, but he felt a small prang of something in his chest. He abandoned the honey powder, deciding that three was enough and watched the small granules dance around the mug when he stirred it.

“Sister,” he began, not looking up from the tea. “What were you really doing in the corridor when you ran into me?” he said quietly. A moment of unease passed between them. Ember was about to say ‘forget it’ when Olivia spoke.

“I was going to go into the catacombs and eat it with Papa…” she blurted out. There was no use in trying to lie or hide it from him. She sighed deeply and took a big gulp from her mug, which turned out to be a really dumb idea. It burned her tongue and throat and she coughed and hacked a bit. Ember had begun to pat her back a little too harshly, but he was only trying to help her clear her throat, she assumed. Once she had gotten past the coughing spell and she could breathe without wheezing she continued. 

“I go down there to visit and talk to the Papas. I know we can go during the daytime to visit and pay respects or whatever, and we aren’t supposed to go at night because... I really don’t know why, but I like to sneak in and just sit there with them for a while if I have nightmares or whatever,” she clasped her hands around her mug as if it were a lifeline. She wasn’t sure what Ember would do now, he still had his hand on her back, but the pats and gentle rubs had stopped. She sighed deeply again and closed her eyes wishing she hadn’t run into him at all.

Ember didn’t really know what exactly to say, so for once in his life, he didn’t say anything at all. He sat in the hard chair thinking about how lonely she must have been to want to actively go spend time with corpses. Surely she had friends or something? No, maybe that wasn’t it and he was being a little presumptuous shit. Normally people don’t go to visit the Papas to just sit and be with them, normally the sisters go just to try and throw themselves at the glass and cry about how they miss them (mainly Papa Emeritus the Third) and want just one more-

Ember was jostled from his freight train of thoughts by a small sad sound from the woman sitting next to him. She had begun crying again. But this time was more of a silent weeping than a full on sobbing.

“I really miss them, but they help me feel better. Especially when…” she trailed off when her voice cracked. A few more silent tears fell from her eyes and Ember turned to give her his full attention. “When I have really bad nightmares,” she swallowed audibly. “I had a night terror I guess tonight. I remember waking up, but like my body was completely frozen stiff. I tried to wiggle my toes or my fingers like I usually do to pull myself out of it, but it wasn’t working. So I started to panic a little and then I saw like a shadow coming from the linen closet and then when I looked back up, he was on top of me and I just absolutely lost my shit,” she shuddered. 

He resumed rubbing her back in soft soothing motions. “It was a little bit ago, maybe a few years, I don’t really remember exactly. There was a brother of sin who really liked me. We worked together for a little bit in the greenhouse together and for a while he was alright, you know? He seemed nice and just really liked to be around me so we would hang out after work and go to the bars in town and stuff, but one night when we came back he tried to do stuff,” Olivia said, hoping Ember would get her drift. He simply stared back at her with a look of unease and concern. She wasn’t really sure what he was thinking so she barreled on.

“He tried to kiss me at first and I didn’t really want to, because he was drunk, and I just wanted him to go back to his dorm and leave so I thought ‘Ok, one kiss and then he’ll be satisfied and leave’,” she was white knuckling the mug in her hands now. Ember had moved his hand that was holding his tea onto her forearm tenderly. He was unsure if he should stop her or let her continue speaking. Olivia had chose for him when she continued. 

“So anyway, um,” Olivia had swished her head as if to flip her hair over her shoulder. She cleared her throat and dipped her head back down to stare into her cooling mug of tea. “After that, I didn’t really know what to do, so I did the only thing I could think to do. I went straight to Papa’s office and told him exactly what had happened and I broke down and he was so nice, and spoke so softly. You know, they really don’t give The Second much credit when it comes to him being so sweet. Everyone always wants to think he was a standoffish asshole who just really liked to bed as many women as possible and stuff,” she grinned a little. “But I mean, yeah he totally did, but that’s not the point. He was really gentle and caring and he demanded that I move jobs, but I mean I wanted to, so it wasn’t like he forced me to or anything,” Olivia was all over the place now. Her words came out in swift movements and she was quite animatedly talking about how Papa had dealt with the aftermath.

It was clear to Ember now, why she would go to sit with the dead. He never felt very close in particular to the Papa Olivia continued to go on about, since he was only brought topside towards the end of The Second’s reign. He greatly missed The Third, but not enough to go sit with his dead body, IF it was indeed a dead body at all. He still questioned what really went down with the Emertius Brothers. Cardinal Copia was very tight lipped when it came to his predecessors. 

Olivia had finished whatever tangent she had gone on about Papa Emeritus II and sat silently. She was still gripping the mug in her hand like she was trying to squeeze blood from a turnip. Ember had moved his chair a little closer to the woman and pulled her upper body towards him in an easy embrace. He settled her head against his chest and looped his arms around her shoulders delicately. 

“I’m sorry,” he murmured and he set his chin on top of her head. He pushed a little of his elemental energy at her to warm her up and wrap around her like a blanket. It was working from what he could tell. She relaxed a little bit at a time and eased her death grip on her coffee mug. He noticed it was almost empty and her breathing was beginning to even out. Poor thing had seemingly exhausted herself. She was falling asleep in his arms and the thought made a blush creep along his cheeks. “You want to go lay down and finally get those cuddles?”

She made a small soft “Mmhm” against his chest, accompanied with a small nod. Ember plucked the mug from her hands and set it next to his abandoned one on the table. He then scooped her up in his arms and made to take her to her bed. Even though he was slightly smaller in height and size to the woman, he easily picked her up like a sack of potatoes. He held her to his body as he opened the door to her bedroom and pushed it close with his foot behind them.

The bed was just inside the room to the right and he laid her down gently. He didn’t have to turn down the covers because the bed wasn’t made up. She was still clothed in a tank top and soft pajama pants, and Ember had bent to take her slippers off when she nearly kicked him in the teeth as she kicked them off and slid her legs underneath the covers. Ember normally slept nude, but felt that it would probably make Olivia uncomfortable if he just shed his clothes after she just told him about her awful dream. He did have the sense to take his keys out of his sweatpants pocket so they wouldn’t stab either of them during the night.

He slipped off his house shoes and walked around the chest at the foot of the bed to climb in beside the sister of sin. Ember was sure she was probably already asleep now. He pulled his hair up into a ponytail and secured it with the hair tie on his wrist before lying down next to Olivia. She rolled over to face him and he gladly shoved an arm under her pillow so she could scoot closer and lay her head on Ember’s shoulder. He pulled the blanket up over them both and flung his free arm across her so he could hold her. Olivia nuzzled into the crook of his arm and shoulder and slipped her arm underneath his so she could hold him as well. Finally they were both going to get what they needed.


	4. House shoes make decent weapons

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After spending the night with a lovely sister of sin, and getting the cuddles they both so desperately craved, will another nightmare make things worse? How will the sister of sin deal with seeing Ember, our beloved fire ghoul, as himself?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (A.N.: this chapter depicts minor violence, a panic attack, and after-care of said panic attack. If reading about such things triggers your anxiety it may be best to skip out on this chapter.)  
> I wanted to post this before I had left for vacation, but here we are.  
> Thank you for reading, commenting, leaving kudos and such. It really means a great deal that other people enjoy my silly little drabbles.

Ember had slept fairly soundly through the rest of the night and into the morning with Sister Olivia by his side. He really didn’t know her too well, even though they had hung out a handful of times before. He stretched his lithe body out and rolled over to face the woman lying to his left.

Olivia’s hair was an absolute mess. The bun she had it in previously was beyond gone and she had sprigs of hair sticking out everywhere. Ember smiled warmly at the sight. Her lips were parted and she was lying on her stomach with half of her face smooshed into the pillow. Gently puff-like snores were coming from her. There was lat little prang in his chest again. He still wasn’t sure what to make of it when his bladder not-so-subtly reminded him of its presence. He hated having to get up and miss even one moment of watching Olivia sleep soundly and peacefully, but, you know, nature calls. 

He pulled the blankets back and eased out of bed, desperate to not wake the woman. He slid out from the cavernous warmth and padded over to the open door to the bathroom. You had to go through the linen closet to go into the bathroom. The tiles were unusually cold to the fire ghoul’s bare feet, but the little rug in front of the toilet provided additional relief as he relieved his poor bladder. It felt like he hadn’t emptied it in at least a day and a half. He shook himself to try to remove any remaining drips before tucking himself back into his grey sweats. He was pretty grateful that Aether had given him his spare sleep pants now because he liked having the additional room for his junk. He made a mental note to size up the next time he went into town the next time to buy new clothes. He turned to the right and saddled over to the sink to wash his hands.

As he looked at himself in the mirror, he laughed a bit at his own disheveled appearance. His ponytail was barely hanging on and wisps of his hair clung to his neck and his chest. He must have sweat a bit overnight in his sleep.

Though he had amazing control over his given element while he was awake and conscious, sometimes it seemed to have a mind of its own when he fell into a deep sleep. He washed and dried his hands before attempting to claim and tame his hair back down into a proper ponytail. When he was satisfied, he turned his face this way and that and stroked his chin a bit. “Might be time for a shave soon,” he thought and gave himself one final look over. Not that it really mattered; he was just going to crawl back into bed next to Olivia.

There! There it was again, that odd flippy feeling in his chest. He rubbed over the spot he felt it and looked down at his bare chest. His… bare chest?

Ember was puzzled at why he was half clothed but it only took him a moment to remember why he had taken it off in the first place. He didn’t even care if it was still sitting at the scene of the crime from last night. He would go by and collect it after he spent some more time with the lovely Sister Olivia.

He turned and walked back through the small closet that housed sheets, towels, blankets, and extra pillows, as well as other miscellaneous household items, and into the bedroom. He looked slightly embarrassed as he had forgotten to shut the door when he had gotten up. He supposed that was just a guy thing to do and he hoped he hadn’t disturbed Olivia. At least he put the toilet seat and lid back down, which was more than he could say for some of his fellow band ghouls.

Olivia looked perfectly serene as she continued to sleep soundly. Ember lifted up his side of the blankets and caught a flash of the sister’s thigh and knee as he was about to slide back into bed next to her. His cheeks burned as a flush trailed through them. Hadn’t she gone to sleep in her tank top and pajama pants? Oh no, they didn’t… they couldn’t have… could they? He wasn’t known to do anything in his sleep (unlike a certain multi ghoul) and surely he would have woken up and known, right? He would remember if he were intimate with the sister, right? “Of course. Of course I would,” he tried to console himself mentally. 

Ember delicately lifted the covers again just to check he had indeed seen what he had thought he had seen. Sure enough, her legs were bare and certainly not clothed in last nights’ pajama pants.

“If you’re going to keep ruffling the covers, you can sleep on the couch, Dew,” called from a very disgruntled and sleepy voice. Olivia turned over and Ember quickly lowered the blankets back down before he got an eyeful of something he shouldn’t. Well, not yet anyway.

He muttered a weak and embarrassed apology as he tried to lie back down and get comfortable again. It was rather difficult. He usually needed to twist and turn and flop around a few times at least before he could find a comfortable position- if he was lucky. He sighed before rolling over on his side to spoon the lovely woman beside him. He hoped it was still ok that he cuddled up to her.

She gave her silent permission when she settled and snuggled up against him. Tucking herself as close to his warm body as she could possibly get. Though, Ember could have done without her grinding her backside against his pelvis. He was hoping he would be able to calm himself, lest anything were to, ahem, arise. He groaned and laid as still as he could, wishing she would quit moving soon and hurry up and get comfy already.

Ember silently sent a prayer to Lucifer to help him. He really didn’t want a boner to ruin the moment for him, or give Olivia the wrong idea. He tried to curve his hips back and away, but the sleepy woman wasn’t having it. She continued to press back against him. Ember whined and gave up. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her to his body as close and tight as she allowed. If she wanted cuddles, he would surely provide. Besides, it wasn’t too bad to share a bed with the sister. They way she laid on him when he tucked her in was almost perfection and completely normal feeling. It was as if her body knew exactly how to bend and mold itself o Ember’s. He sighed contentedly in her hair and nuzzled against her neck and shoulder. The moment was warm and tender. Ember could feel the ebb and flow of sleep calling to him and pulling him back under. Slowly his breathing began to mimic Olivia’s and he drifted off again, holding the woman tenderly.

Olivia had felt the bed rustle when Ember had gotten up to go to the bathroom. She settled back quickly and had just about fallen completely asleep when he kept raising and fluffing the bed covers. She had told him he could go sleep on the couch if he kept on, and then she rolled over. Ember had hesitated a bit when she changed positions, so she kept trying to cuddle up to him to show him she wasn’t very serious about the couch comment  
Ember was stifling hot. He had held her through most of the night, but Olivia had woken up from a rather uncomfortable and all encompassing heat. She had found that Ember, being the obvious fire ghoul, was the source. She kicked off her pajama pants and reached up the wall to feel around for the light switch to turn on the ceiling fan. She grumbled when she couldn’t find it. She flipped the covers off and angrily flung herself out of the bed to flap at the wall until she smacked against the switch. The fan had creaked to life. She went on to the bathroom, washed her hands, and lay back down. Ember had curled in on himself and some of his hair was in his face. He looked rather peaceful for such a spitfire he was known to be.

Olivia had not even gotten completely under the covers when Ember had grabbed a hold of her like she was a giant fleshy teddy bear. She was effectively squished, but luckily she managed enough wiggle room to make herself more comfortable in his embrace.

When Ember shook her awake she could no longer recall any of the night’s occurrences, or even being woken up momentarily by him fluttering the covers an hour or so earlier.

“Wh-what… what is it, Dew?” she groaned unhappily. Ember didn’t answer with any words; he just kept pushing on her arm and shoulder and anywhere he could touch, really. She batted away his hands and tried to raise herself up on one arm. The sun had come up, and it was well into the morning, if not early afternoon, by now if she were to judge by the light pouring into her room from behind her thick curtains.

“Dew?” Olivia’s voice waivered as she tried to rouse him. She was genuinely becoming concerned for the ghoul. “Dew, hey, it’s me. It’s ok, calm down.”

Ember was continuing to try to fight her more and more feverishly. His nails were growing longer and sharper as he kept waving at nothing in the air. His glamour was failing and his black and grey skin was beginning to show through in holographic shimmering ripples.

“Dew!” Olivia grabbed her pillow and began smacking him urgently about his head and face and chest. In one swipe, he shredded the pillow to pieces. Bits of cotton polyfill and foam bounced free of the ruined pillowcase. Olivia shrieked and scuttled away at the carnage, falling off the side of the queen size bed. The blanket tangled around Olivia’s leg and she was laying now at a rather odd angle with her lower half partway on the bed ad her upper half on the rug covering her hardwood floor.

“Dewdrop! Stop!” she cried as she desperately attempted to free her foot. She tugged and yanked her foot back but barely moved the blanket. It must have been tangled up around Ember somehow too. She felt around her floor for something, anything to try to throw at him that might wake him from his awful nightmare She groped around and slapped something soft: a house shoe!

Ember meanwhile was still fighting an unseen enemy in her bed, and small remnants of cotton fluff were being tossed around. One Piece landed on Olivia’s face causing her to yelp in surprise. She latched onto the house shoe and finally freed her bound leg. She flopped the rest of the way onto the floor and rolled over to right herself. She peeked over the edge of the bed and gasped.

Ember’s fingers, hands, and forearms were black as soot and glimpses of fiery red could be seen glowing and pulsing through cracks in the demon’s skin. Travelling up his arms his skin was an ashy gray with flecks of black and white. Olivia’s eyes widened as her gaze landed on his once beautiful pale face. Horns had sprouted from just below his hairline directly in front of his temples and curved forward, up, and back. They were even more impossibly black than his hands and they glittered with deep crimson and red opal-like splotches. It was as if they were made of gemstone but dipped into molten lava and allowed to cool off.

Fear now consumed Olivia. Not once had she ever seen a ghoul with their glamour completely stripped before. Cracked, to be sure. Every now and again she would see ghouls or ghoulettes in the library toting extra books and whatnot behind them with their tails. But they never once allowed any humans at the abbey to see more than a mere glimpse of their true hellish forms. Not unless they were mate-bonded or very high ranked clergy members. Olivia was neither of those. She remembered to breathe when Ember’s face contorted with a pained expression. He released a long and high pitched keen, akin to a very sad cry.

His toned arms fell to his abdomen and twitched. His clawed hands kept fluttering between flexion and tension as he gripped onto the ruined pillowcase. The sister eased up from the safety of her hiding spot and looked more closely at the ghoul in her bed. He had seemingly calmed down a bit. His foot twitched and she saw that even his feet had claws. Olivia raised the house shoe in her defense.

“Dew?” she whispered as if it would startle the ghoul. “Dewdrop?” she carefully climbed onto the bed and knelt. She dug her toes into the mattress to hold her balance. She whispered his name a few more times, each a little louder than the last, until she reached regular speaking volume. Ember twitched and shook his head back and forth a few times, but didn’t fully stir. His hair was a mess and a few strands were tangled, pressed against his sweat-slicked skin. He whimpered, keening softly again. 

Olivia reached out an unsure hand to try to touch Ember on his arm. He seemed calm enough to try to touch at least, but she raised the house shoe up at ear level just in case she needed to swat him. Her fingers shook with apprehension. She pulled back once, twice before steeling her nerves. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, counted to five, and exhaled, clearing her mind. Her fingertips finally connected with the blackened skin on his forearm. Contrary to what she was expecting, it wasn’t as hard and stone like at all. It was still smooth skin, just more hide-like instead of soft human flesh. It was incredibly hot to the touch as well. If she had to compare it to something, she thought it felt like a plate that had been left too long in the microwave. Hot enough to handle if you were careful, but would burn you if you lingered in one place too long. Olivia pulled her hand back as she began to chew on the inside of her bottom lip. Hesitantly, she reached out again and gently laid her hand on his forearm.

She delicately and carefully moved her hand up his black skin and over to his bicep where it faded into an ash colour.

“Dewdrop?” she gingerly squeezed his upper arm. The skin here was far easier to hold onto. It was not as hot as his hands and forearm so she found she could keep her grasp on him much longer in one spot. Olivia inched closer on the bed and slowly lowered her arm holding the house shoe. She gripped more firmly on his bicep and gave a gentle push. He didn’t respond. She nudged him again. Ember whined and rolled slightly towards her. He settled back on his back however. Olivia was beginning to wonder if she was even doing the right thing. After all, she had no real way of knowing how he would react if he were awoken in the middle of what was clearly a nightmare. But if the shoe was on the other foot, what would she have wanted Ember to do?

“Dew, come on you need to wake up now,” she said as she gently rocked him back and forth. “You have to wake up; you’re having a bad dream.” Olivia dropped the house shoe, opting instead to place her fingertips on the side of his jaw. She stroked his face a few times before he realized that it was actually happening and not just in his dream. This would prove to be a very bad mistake.

Ember woke with a howl and instinctively snatched the hands that were touching him. He flipped the women harshly over onto her stomach before she even had a chance to register what was happening. Ember snarled and snapped his teeth at the soft, warm, woman who now lay beneath him. He held her wrists at very uncomfortable and awkward angles behind her back. His knee was pressed into her spine to render her immobile and powerless.

Olivia couldn’t stop the scream from exiting her throat. She was incredibly afraid at that moment and her fight or flight responses had all failed her. She couldn’t breathe from the weight of the fire ghoul on top of her and her mind raced to try to catch up with the rest of what had transpired. It was to no avail, however. Her anxiety had kicked everything into panic mode and convinced her that she would hurt her; snap her arms clean off, eat the marrow straight from her bones, drink her blood like wine, and worse…

Ember continued to growl and snap his jaws at her before his senses screamed at him to stop- to take in his surroundings and realize there was no danger here. Only fluffy white pillows, grey sheets, and off white walls. No one was here to hurt him; he was alone with the lovely sister from last night. But she was no longer beside him he noted. The bed seemed much more firm and awkward feeling. It also seemed to shake. That was odd. Why was her bed suddenly shaky? Though reality was slow to dawn on him, his brain finally processed what was going on.

His stomach dropped as he looked down slowly at the woman trembling with fear beneath him. Those were _his _hands holding her arms back. That was _his_ leg digging into her spine. Those small scared sobs that reached his ears did not belong to him. It was _Olivia_ that was making them, causing the bed to shake beneath him. He instantly released the woman and gently eased off her back bones. Had he leapt like he wanted, he could have hurt her from the pressure on her spine. He instead crawled off of her and knelt on the hardwood chest at the end of the bed. He looked at his hands, but only saw black and claws. He felt ashamed. __

__He also felt rather naked and bare at that moment. Only a handful of people had ever seen him without his glamour in place. They all had been familiar ghouls or present at his summoning. He knew however, that now was not the time to worry about what Olivia might say about how he looked in his demonic form. It was about, rather, the fact that Sister Olivia had not moved at all since he had released her from his hold. Sure, her arms had fallen limply, landing wherever they fell when he released them, but the rest of her was seemingly frozen in place. His pointed ears fell back. He knew this particular situation all too well, having experienced plenty of panic attacks on his own._ _

__He was unsure how to appropriately approach the sister of sin, however. Would she want to be physically comforted? Just left alone? He didn’t really have the time to ask and it wasn’t as if she could answer exactly. Plus, it wasn’t as if it had ever popped up in general conversation. He dug his claws against his scalp as he grasped fistfuls of his hair, gnawing on the inside of his cheek._ _

__“Ok, Dew, gotta think- gotta calm down, gotta think… Ok what would help the most?” he clenched his eyes shut and screwed up his face in earnest concentration. He needed first and foremost to not appear threatening, and to do that, he needed to adjust his glamour and put it back in place. This part was actually tricky because it wasn’t like there was a switch you could just flip whichever way you wanted. He had to actually think and concentrate and will it into existence, hold, the energy, shape it just right to where it would blend over the body like a second natural skin._ _

__The few moments it took felt like a small eternity for the fire ghoul because he wished to rush to aid the woman in crisis. He did the quick time version as best he could, and that meant hiding the horns, cloaking the skin, and retracting the teeth and claws back to an acceptable size. He left his tail alone as he would if he were around his fellow ghouls or the Cardinal however. He didn’t think about it, it was such a small thing to overlook in this particular situation. He waned to help the still crying woman and pull her out of her mind’s prison._ _

__Ember eased off the edge of the chest and dipped onto the floor beside the bed. He thought that Olivia was facing that direction. If so, it might be easier on him to try to help her if she could see that he wasn’t a monster anymore. Well, that he didn’t look like one anymore in any case._ _

__He eased up on his hands and knees and looked over at the terrified woman. Her form was still shaking rather violently from uncontrollable sobs that showed no end in sight. He sat back on his heels and planted his hands directly in what he assumed and hoped was Olivia’s line of sight._ _

__“Olivia,” he said clearly and deliberately. “I’m here, its ok. It’s gonna be ok. I’m not going to hurt you. You’re safe. You are in your room. You are in your bed. You are safe. No one or nothing will harm you here,” he said as he lifted his hands to show her his palms in a display of submission; that he truly meant no harm. “I’m just me, ok? Not going to hurt you.”_ _

__He could have been talking directly to the bed itself for all she showed him in understanding or confirmation. He knew it wasn’t her fault. He knew all too well the other side of this particular transaction and how it went. He would gladly take all the time he needed for Lovia to do more than shake, tremble, sob, gas for breath, and blink. He would be there for her. He reached out slowly to her arm that was closest to him. ‘It must be so uncomfortable bent like that,’ he thought._ _

__“I’m going to touch you, ok?” Ember made sure he took his time and spoke clearly and evenly every move he was making to her. It helped him with his anxiety attacks, and so he hoped it was helpful to the sister. It was something Aether had done for him countless times before, shortly after his summoning. He slowly moved the woman’s limbs into a much better and comfortable position. Once he was done he sat back on his heels. He looked at her, his eyes full of worry, deep concern, and guilt._ _

__This was his fault- there was absolutely no question about that. He only hoped he hadn’t done irreparable damage to his blossoming friendship with Sister Olivia. Tears started to prickle his eyes and he bit down hard on the inside of his cheek to try to stem their flow. ‘This isn’t about you right now, Dew,’ he thought. ‘Take care of her first, then she what’s salvageable.’_ _

__The fire ghoul sat at the woman’s side until his legs ached and his feet were asleep, but at long last, Olivia’s tears dried and she was breathing at a much more normal rate now. Or rather, one that was more acceptable than just panting anyway._ _

__She suddenly heaved and gasped deeply, startling Ember. He wasn’t exactly sure what to do and e reached out and took a hold of her hand. He would never admit it, but it was more for his own benefit at that moment, than hers. Olivia took in deep gulps of air as if she had been submerged and was just now coming up from underwater. The sister closed her eyes and continued to take slow, controlled breaths. She no longer looked petrified, and for that, Ember was relieved somewhat._ _

__“Hey, hey, I’m here. It’s just me, it’s just Ember. I’m here, you’re ok,” he smiled softly, even though she couldn’t see it from behind her closed eyes. He hoped she could hear it in his voice at least._ _

__The woman opened her eyes and the corners of her mouth twitched into and upward curve for a split second. Ember’s chest tightened at the sight and he squeezed her hand absentmindedly. He continued talking to the sister until she moved on her own. She pulled her hand from Ember’s and pushed herself up, well, attempted to at least. She fell back onto her stomach, sighing heavily. She looked sheepishly over at the fire ghoul.  
“Hey, Ember?” she asked pitifully. The ghoul inched forward to hear her better. It wasn’t that he needed to of course. As a ghoul he had better hearing than most humans. His ears had perked up at the mention of his given name, however. Up until this point, all she had ever called him was his nickname, ‘Dewdrop’ (he still wasn’t sure how he got that stupid nickname). Hearing his name on her lips was rather unexpected, and so he gave the sister his full rapt attention. She had yet to continue so he nodded to her to do so._ _

__“Can you lay with me for a while?” she asked in a very small, timid voice._ _

__“Of course,” he smiled warmly. It dropped slightly as he looked over her half naked form. “Um… do you want me to cover you back up or anything?” he blushed. The other shook her head ‘no’._ _

__“It’s hot,” she mumbled. Ember climbed up and into the bed next to her. It was a wreck: blankets and sheets were tossed away and disheveled, pillows were thrown around and the debris from the one he had ruined still scattered about. He was uncertain what he should do now, when Olivia spoke up._ _

__“Can you hold me?” her voice cracked a bit, but she still sounded just as small. Ember nodded and pulled her into his arms. She was mostly limp and heavier to move around, but the ghoul didn’t mind. She could have weighed as much as the bed itself and half the abbey as well and he still would do damn near anything this woman asked of him. She slowly wrapped her arms around herself and wiggled around until she lay comfortably against his chest. She pressed her cheek into his warm flesh and listened to the gentle and steady beat of his heard. She pushed every other thought from her mind and focused solely on the lubb-dubb lubb-dubb rhythm of the ghoul’s heart. She was surprised at how similar it sounded to a human heart beat. It was so soothing and familiar. She closed her eyes and just listened. The sound of air inflating his lungs with the breath cut through, but it served as a reminder that he was here with her and she wasn’t alone. Ember reached up and began to stroke over her hair. He knew it helped calm him when Aether did it for him, so he figured it might feel nice for her too._ _

__Olivia hummed in contentment as his short claws raked over her scalp. He closed his eyes and settled back against her headboard. There was something very odd about the woman in his arms that he couldn’t quite put his finger on, something about her made his chest feel strange. He had had many sexual partners in his life and time at the abbey, but none made him feel whatever this was. He made it a point to speak to either Mountain or Aether about it when he had a chance._ _

__Before long, he had begun to purr. The unexpected noise brought the sister back to the present. She wasn’t sure what the noise was at first, as she had never actually experienced it firsthand. She’d only ever heard from other siblings of sin who were seeing a ghoul seriously, or already mate-bonded._ _

__“E-Ember?” she squeaked out, not bothering to turn and look at him as a blush crept across her face._ _

__“Hm?” he turned his gaze down to her._ _

__“Are you… are you purring??” she asked. At her question he stopped and adjusted his position. He hadn’t realized he was even doing it and it embarrassed him slightly.  
“Sorry,” he muttered and resumed stroking her hair and lightly scratching her scalp._ _

__“N-no, it- it’s fine, I just,” she shrugged. “I’ve never heard it before. It’s nice,” she added. She moved until she could reach out and laid her arm lazily across Ember’s stomach. His skin was still very warm, but nowhere near how hot it had been earlier. She closed her eyes again and began to draw small and unconscious sigils onto his skin._ _

__Contentment washed over her and she sunk into him. Slowly they both began to drift off into sleep, curled up to each other. Ember slowly and softly began to purr again and his tail snaked its way up from his side to lovingly tap at the sister’s hand. Her fingers had long since stopped moving as she fell asleep. His tail seemingly petted her hand and fingers, before it wound itself around her wrist and settled in her loosened grip. She wrapped her fingers around it in her sleep, holding onto it gently._ _


	5. So what's for lunch?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What is a ghoul tail exactly? Is it soft and fuzzy like a cats? Is it hard and thick? Rope like? Sister Olivia get's to find out in this chapter. Cue lots of laughter and general cuteness.

When they awoke sometime later, they were a mess of tangled limbs and crooked sheets. The tank top Olivia was wearing had shifted around, and one of her breasts had popped free from the stretched out armhole. She righted it, wondering if Ember had seen or not and settled back against him. He was slow to stir and wake. He reached up with both arms and did a full body stretch. He pointed his toes and his legs seemed to vibrate with the stretch. 

Olivia blinked quickly to be sure she had seen what she thought she had seen. Even his tail had stuck out to be stretched as well. She had only ever seen them in passing, and she always made it a point not to stare because it might be considered rude. She reached out once it coiled itself back up, to see if it were within arms distance to touch. The woman hesitated, thought better of it, and pulled her hand back.

Ember caught her and laughed silently. He had forgotten all about it and he wiggled the tip of it at her, making it look like it was waving. Olivia blinked at it then looked up to Ember, blushing. He nodded at her and her unasked question.

Again, she reached out towards it. Ember smirked as her hand slowly inched closer. He couldn’t help it, he swished it and playfully swatted the back of her hand with it. Olivia yelped, jerked her hand back and buried her face in the crook of Ember’s shoulder. He laughed loudly and boisterously. It shook the whole bed. As his fit of giggles subsided, Olivia shot him a dirty look, which prompted his laughing spell all over again.

“Ok, ok, I’m sorry. I thought it was funny. I figured maybe you had been around us enough to know what they were like. I’m not sure why you reacted like that though,” he snickered.

“No, I haven’t ever touched a t-tail before, Dewdrop!” she exclaimed, sitting up. She steadied herself on his chest. “I don’t normally make it a habit to go around and just feel up on everyone I work with. I mean yeah, I see them around the library, holding books and junk, but I figured it’s just rude to go and reach out and touch someone like that,” she huffed. Ember gave her a gentle squeeze with his arm as he chuckled.

“It’s no different than you touching my arm or leg. It’s just an extra appendage to us,” he laughed. “But yeah, you shouldn’t just go around and feel up on a ghoul’s tail unless you really know them, you’re right. Here,” he slithered his tail around the woman’s wrist, to which she jumped and tried to pull her hand back. He held his grip firmly with the spindly muscle. “It’s ok, it’s not going to hurt you,” Ember said. _‘Unless you want it to,’_ he added mentally. Ember unwound it and laid it across his stomach, swishing it back and forth. It was as if he were tempting the woman to reach out and stroke it.

“You sure? I’m not gonna hurt it?”

This had Ember genuinely guffawing again with howls of laughter. He clutched at his sides. Olivia sat back, crossing her arms over her chest. She pouted and sharply turned her face away from him.

Once he finally had caught his breath, he leaned up and sat cross-legged on the bed.

“No, no I promise. It doesn’t hurt to touch,” he poked her. “That didn’t hurt did it?” he asked, as if it would prove his point.

“No,” she said defiantly.

“Ok then. It feels similar to me touching your arm, or leg. It won’t hurt me unless you like, fuck, I guess if you bite down on it, or try to break it, or stomp on it, or something,” he scratched his head. “But I mean, I’m sure you’ll be fine if you just want to pet it,” he smirked.

Olivia looked over at the thing thumping against her shoulder. Ember had snuck it up her side when she wasn’t looking. The tail had a soft leathery spade at the very end of it. She looked up to Ember, then back to his tail. She raised her eyebrows in a silent question of permission, and he nodded, gesturing with his hand to go ahead. She reached out a tentative hand and gently brushed her fingertips over the spaded end. It felt like well-worn leather with very fine hairs on it. 

Ember did his very best to hold still as her feather-light touches were like tickle-torture. She moved her hand slowly down the ropey appendage. It was pure muscle, but it still had a squishy quality to it as well.  
“See? Not so bad, huh?” Ember grinned.

“No,” Olivia murmured as she continued to test around with his tail. “It’s really soft. And kinda cute, actually. It’s like a big giant rat tail!”

“It is not!” Ember yanked his tail from the sister’s grasp, insulted.

“Wha-hey!” she reached out for it, but he twisted it away from her, stroking it as if he were stroking his own ego.

“She didn’t mean it, buddy,” he cooed at it. He stuck his tongue out at the sister playfully. Olivia quirked up one eyebrow at him and smirked.

“I mean if you wanna go sticking our tongue out at folks, I can think of a few good ideas to put it to good use,” she grinned and winked at him.

Ember stopped mid-stroke and his tail flicked around its spaded end sharply. His face flushed a deep red and whatever snark he had saved on his tongue, died in his mouth. Olivia nearly fell over from a sudden fit of laughter. She clutched at her sides, rolling across the bed from side to side. For once in his life, Ember was speechless. He was very much used to such taunts and jokes from his ghoulish brethren, but he had never had a sister of sin say such things to him like that before if they didn’t intend to back them up. He had hardly expected something like that from Sister Olivia. He didn’t think she saw him like that.

“Oh my Lucifer, I wish you could have seen your face!” she said, wiping a tear from her eye. Ember was till blushing but had finally gathered his wits about him. At least, enough to shut his open mouth. He was still dumbfounded but tried to be suave anyway.

“I-I mean, if you want,” he began to slowly stick out his long forked tongue fully, and flick the end at her suggestively. Olivia blushed, blinking a few times before bursting out into another fit of giggles. She flopped over onto her back and kicked her legs. Ember was completely lost now. He had never been in such a strange situation before and had absolutely no idea what was funny about anything he had said or done.

He crossed his arms over his chest. If she wanted to continue on, rolling around like this was the absolute funniest thing on the entire planet, it was fine with him. But he wouldn’t have to like it. Ember sighed deeply. Olivia was still cackling.

After a few more minutes she calmed herself down. It was silent between the two for a moment until Ember’s stomach growled loudly. This of course, spurred more giggles from the sister, until her own stomach betrayed her by making its presence known even more loudly than Embers.

“Ok, ok. I guess its time we get up, huh?” she patted her stomach and looked over at Ember. He arched an eyebrow up at her. He never really even expected to have stayed this long in the first place, but he now just assumed he would be kicked out. His tail lazily swished by his side.

“Yeah, I suppose so,” he swung his legs over the side of the bed, stretching once more. Olivia looked over his nude torso, studying the way his muscles rippled under his taut skin. He reached up and over, his spine cracking in a few places. She watched his tail extend out fully again before relaxing. It’s spade end swayed like a cats. She wanted to pet it some more.

“So tell me. What d you like to eat besides strawberry ice cream?” she rolled over onto her belly, propping herself up on her elbows. Ember paused. He turned his gaze to the woman staring up at him. HE glanced around, but obviously she wasn’t speaking to anyone else. They were still alone in her bedroom. He pointed at himself as if to ask ‘Me?’ and the woman grinned.

“Nah, Dew. I’m asking the other ghoul who stayed the night with me in my bed and ripped apart my pillow. Of course, you!” she snickered. Ember rolled his eyes at her. “Come on. What do you want to eat so I know if I can fix it or if we’ll have to go out for it.”

“You want to have breakfast with me?”

“Well, it’s more lunchtime now, but, yeah? I figured you were hungry from the way your stomach growled. From the way it sounded, you probably haven’t eaten in like, two weeks, at least. So yeah, what do you want to eat?” Olivia asked again. Ember blushed and turned away to fiddle with his hair. He wasn’t sure what to say.

“Tacos,” he blurted out the first thing that came to his mind.

“Ooh, good choice. I love tacos too,” the woman said as she rolled over off the bed. She walked over to the closet and slid the mirrored door open. She rooted around, searching for something more acceptable to put on. “Hey, Dew? You wanna borrow one of my shits? I’m fairly certain they’ll fit you,” she called over her shoulder. She pulled out a faded black Pantera shirt and flung it at the general direction of the bed for Ember, who still hadn’t answered her. “Stay turned around, ok? I’m gonna change.”

Ember immediately darted his eyes to the woman. It wasn’t his fault, not really. He wouldn’t have even looked up if she hadn’t said anything. She had pulled her tank top up and nearly had it over her head when Ember hastily scooped up the shirt she had tossed at him. He turned away, but the image of her bare back was going to be etched into his mind for quite some time. He unknowingly fell even more for her then.

It finally dawned on him what the tight feeling in his chest was; it was a crush. He had a deep seated crush on this woman, and to have her so close to him was causing him to... to… he didn’t even know or understand. He had only really felt lust carnal desire for women before. Men sometimes as well, but never really anything more. Of course, after-care was important. Taking care of your partner was important. However, he never really understood how or why ghouls chose to pursue relationships with human women. They were very incompatible in his eyes. But this one, this one was something very, very special. He continued to ponder this new development when something snapped in front of him and pulled him from his reverie.

“Hello, earth to Dew,” Olivia snapped her fingers in front of his face again. “You alright? You really seemed to space out for a minute, there.”

Ember was still holding onto the soft cotton t shirt, midway to pulling it on. He felt his cheeks flush a deeper red as he slipped into the shirt. He would never ever have accepted this from anyone other than his closest friends and band mates, and yet here he was in this borrowed t shirt from a sister of sin. The fire ghoul tugged on the hem, finding a loose thread to fiddle and play with. He allowed his mind to continue to wonder as Olivia led them out from the bedroom and through the living room.

She paused, grabbed her keys from where she slung them last night, picked up her wallet, checked her reflection in the mirror by the door, and then ushered Ember out the door. She turned and locked the deadbolt behind her.

Once they were out in the hallway, Ember noticed she had pulled her hair up into a neat bun. She seemed even more aloof than she had been last night, but Ember figured that it was attributed to her panic attack, which he was still hesitant of bringing up. He just wanted to know she was ok.

“So, tacos,” he spoke up. “Where are we going to get them? I’m not really sure the kitchen keeps tortillas stocked on hand. I think they’re hard to come by here, actually,” his voice trailed off as he muttered to himself. Sister Olivia continued to walk down the hallway. 

“Oh, we aren’t going to the kitchen or dining hall. I have a friend in town,” she said. Ember swallowed audibly.

“B-but there aren’t any taco places in town though,” he furrowed his brows trying to remember. He came up with nothing; not a single Mexican restaurant in the close vicinity. Olivia giggled as she rounded on the stairs and began her descent.

“No, Dewdrop. I mean, I have a friend in town that actually makes them himself. He’s been trying to save up for a food truck, but can’t quite get the licensing things right from what I hear,” she looked over her shoulder at him as she reached the landing first. He’s a good friend, you know. A real person, not just some rando who just offers passersby his wares like some kind of medieval shop keep,” Olivia giggled. Ember however, was not amused. He frowned at the back of her head when she turned back around to continue down the next flight. 

“Yeah, I know what a friend is, thank you. I’m just… I mean, do you always just drop in unannounced and ask for food?” they finished the second flight and continued on down the corridor.

“No, Dewdrop. I’m calling in an order ahead. It would be rude if we just showed up and went ‘Let me get uuuuh…’” she laughed, pulling out her phone. “You want me to order for you?” she looked over to the fire ghoul. A lightbulb went off above her head and she made a sour face. I’m sorry, I really don’t even know what you like. I mean I know you said tacos, but like, is human food even ok for you? It won’t upset your stomach or anything, or make you sick, right? I… I don’t have too many ghoul friends- well, none, actually- well, one, I mean, but that would be just you, and I don’t know what you eat,” she rambled, laughing nervously. Her movements and erratic hand gestures shook free a strand of her hair from her bun. Her cheeks flushed a bright pink as she looked at Ember, slightly embarrassed.

Ember on the other hand, simply stared at her, frozen midway to pulling his hair up into a more presentable ponytail. His eyes darted around as he tried to think of what to say. Nothing was coming to him easily.

“Um, anyway, Oscar makes really good tacos and empanadas. His taco meat is absolutely out of this world so I definitely recommend his meat. For the tacos! His meat, the beef, for the tacos!” she exclaimed as another bout of embarrassment spread through her. She flailed her hands about to try to dispel the awkward tension she felt. Olivia sighed heavily and hung her head, defeated. Her shoulders slumped a little.

Ember pulled his hair over his shoulder, still feeling unsure and uneasy. It was endearingly cute to see the sister so flustered. Especially at her mind going to the gutter like that; Ember hadn’t really expected the sister to be so naughty-minded, but he should have figured that one out earlier with the tongue comment. 

Though he had had plenty of interactions with many humans over the years since his summoning, the vast majority of these silly human emotions flew over his head. He felt embarrassment, of course. He knew that feeling. After all, he was a very small ghoul on the topside. He knew what panic and excitement felt like, those had easy names. But this, this was something a little out of his depth he felt. He had no real idea what to say for he simply stared at her and offered a light smile.

“I will have his mighty meaty tacos then, since they come so highly recommended,” he said. He wasn’t very sure what more to add to spare the sister from even more embarrassment, but he tried his best, anyway. “Also we ghouls can eat pretty much any and everything,” he pointed to his mouth, bared his sharp teeth, clacking them together at her. “See? Strong jaws and sharp teeth. I personally like the taste of raw meats, myself. I like the way they’re so chewy and soft.”

Olivia lifted her head but tilted it slowly to the side.

“Do you eat dead things?” she asked, deadpan. Ember doubled over with deep, hearty guffaws. Olivia huffed out a breath at his reaction to her very serious question and crossed her arms over her chest. She rolled her eyes and began to tap her foot impatiently. She wasn’t very sure how else to ask the question, so she just said what popped into her head. It could be said here, that Sister Olivia didn’t have much of a filter. After a few moments, Ember composed himself, straightened up, and cleared his throat.

“Yes, of course I eat dead things. Mostly everyone does, don’t they? Steaks are dead cows, pork chops, pigs, chicken, anything and everything is dead when you eat it, Sister Olivia,” he bit down on his lip to stifle even more giggles. 

“No, that’s not what I meant and you know it!” she shoved Ember playfully. He was very solid despite his small frame. “I meant like do you go and do the hunting thing? You know,” she motioned with her hands, making a line across her neck with her finger.

“Oh! Oh, well yes, we do. We ghouls go and hunt the moose and… the… nevermind,” he trailed off after seeing the rather sickly look on Olivia’s face. Apparently she wasn’t ready to hear about how the ghouls kept the grounds free of predators and the like just yet. He had a rather fondness for hunting, but he would save that delectable tale for another time. One where Olivia wasn’t so easily reminded of the fact he was a well oiled hunting monster.

“So, anyway, Oscar and these tacos, huh?” Ember offered a weak smile. Olivia still held her phone in her right hand, and nearly dropped it when she seemed to remember this fact.

“R-right! Yeah, lemme just, uh, yeah. I’ll just,” she dialed a number on her phone’s speed dial then said a few pleasantries before requesting an order of a dozen tacos and 2 beef empanadas. She walked and talked down the hallway, waving at the handful of brothers and sisters of sin they passed along the way. She finished up the conversation with the voice at the other end of the line and took the phone away from her ear, tapping the ‘end call’ button and placing her phone inside her pocket. She looked over to Ember.

“I assume you don’t drive so we’ll head down to the garage for my car,” she said. Ember’s eyes widened.

“Can’t we have it delivered?” he began to wring his hands together. He worried the inside of his lower lip. He looked almost pleading at Olivia, who laughed softly at his childishness.

“No, Dew, we can’t. We have to go get it ourselves if we want Ocelot’s beefy beef tacos. He makes them by himself in his own kitchen so it isn’t like he has time to go and deliver them to everybody. Now, if he had a food truck, we could just go to wherever he was parked at; still have to go to him, but it would at least get us out of the abbey, yeah?”

“I thought you said his name was ‘Oscar’?”

“Oh, yeah, it is. But I can get away with calling him Ocelot. Like a nickname, you know? Like how everybody called you ‘Dewdrop’?”

“My given name topside is Ember, you know.”

“Yes, Dew, I know. But again, it’s a nickname. Wait, what do you mean topside?”

“What do you mean ‘what do you mean topside?’? Obviously, Ember isn’t my ghoulish name. I was summoned here and because I was a fire ghoul I’m given a fire name. Seriously, don’t you know this stuff? You work in the library of all places. Surely you’ve read about this sort of thing. Fire demons are given fire names. Before me was Ifrit, then Fire, and before was-“

“Alpha, yeah. I remember him. Sort of. I wasn’t really around too long before he… I don’t know, retired, I guess,” Olivia shrugged. “But do you all have to have element names? Aren’t you going to run out eventually? And how come you get called Dewdrop? That’s more of a water thing isn’t it?” Olivia opened up the door to the small walkway outside that led to the narrow entrance to the underground parking area. The weather outside was fair and a warm breeze wafted gently through the early summer air. They kept in stride together and Ember politely opened up the door for the sister.

This particular section of the underground lot housed a few clergy member’s official use automobiles, but mostly was for the employee parking for the library, kitchens and grounds keepers since they all were housed nearby. This was a rather nice perk of the wonderful Church. They were always very generous with their parking arrangements. You never had to worry about someone from another building stealing your spot, or even fighting for close parking spaces because they were all your neighbors so to speak. Olivia fished her keys out of her pocket and pressed the little lock button on the key fob. In the next row over, a shiny silver car horn honked as the driving lights flashed. She hummed and pressed the unlock button then.

“Besides,” she continued. “I work with several ghouls, and they don’t have elemental names. Rather, I don’t think so anyway,” her voice became smaller and smaller. She looked down at her feet, realizing she wasn’t really even sure she knew her ghoulish co-workers names. She sees them almost every day, but because there is no real reason to ever wear name tags because let’s face it, The Clergy would never allow such tacky items to be brought into their church at any cost. Most of the time everyone just addressed each other as ‘Sister’ or ‘Brother’ with the occasional ‘Oh no, please call me “Whatever name I want to be called”’. She vowed to herself to go in on her next work day and make it a point to ask the ghouls she worked with their names. Oh, but what if it was rude to ask them? Fuck.

Ember didn’t offer a reply. The pair got inside the car and settled in. Olivia reached over, fumbled with her seat belt and untwisted it before clicking it into the locking mechanism and starting the engine. A gentle rumble hummed up from the car hood and the radio sprang to life. Olivia was very glad she had remembered to turn the volume down before she had parked her car the last time. Sometimes she blared her music so loudly, she wondered how she hadn’t busted out her speakers yet. On more than one occasion, she had come home from a party or some other event and left the car stereo at a rather questionable level, so that when she hopped back in the next time she was nearly startled out of her skin at the ear splitting sudden sounds. She gave herself a quick look in the rear view mirror and looked to make sure no one was being an idiot in the parking deck before she pulled out of the spot.

Ember was lost in his own mind watching the woman go through the routine motions. He tried his best to just focus on the sky and clouds once they were out of the deck and pulling slowly onto the tree lined way to the main entrance. He counted the trees as they passed. Some were pine and others were some sort of oak he gathered. Mountain had tried to teach him about the local flora and fauna before Ember would lose his concentration and just space out. The cobblestone drive flared outwards opening up to the street ahead. Huge stone pillars capped with bronzed gargoyles tinged a green patina with age held up incredible ornately worked wrought iron gates, which were nearly always closed unless you either possessed a key card or persuaded the guard.

Olivia slowly pulled to a halt in front of the gates and looked over to the uniformed guard. She flashed him a quick and easy smile. The guard returned the gesture and waved her on ahead. With a press of an unseen button, the heavy gates opened up before them. Ember closed his eyes and swallowed hard. The colour was beginning to drain from his face and a cold sweat was breaking out at his hairline. He had tried to warm Olivia about his motion sickness, but he stupidly told himself to ‘man up’ and to tough it out for her. He figured it would give him some sort of impressive brownie points with the woman, but the more he thought about it, there was absolutely nothing impressive about being able to ride in a car without getting sick. Not for a human in any case; a ghoul would be a different story. There were no automobiles in Hell. None that he knew of, however, but who was he to say that the Olde One themselves wouldn’t have access to whatever they so chose to have?

Olivia glanced over at him, worried at how quiet he had become. She noticed he wasn’t looking the best, his pale skin had a rather sickly hue to it; one she instantly recognized.

“Dew, if you’re gonna hurl in my car, please roll the window down first,” she teased. Ember hurriedly got the window down as quickly at the little motor would allow. “It’ll help the queasiness a little,” she reached down to her side and opened up the center armrest to root around for something. She swerved a little to the side of the other lane and jerked the car back into her own. Ember groaned and held one hand over and stomach and the other up to his mouth. “Seriously, are you gonna throw up? Because I really do not want to have to drive all the way to get food and back with that in my car, dude.”

“Sorry,” he managed to squeak out. He didn’t want to ruin the car’s upholstery but with Olivia’s sporadic jerking on the steering wheel and stomping of the breaks, he was very dangerously close. They were stopped at a traffic light when she looked over to check on Ember. The fresh air normally helped with her drunken nausea, but it didn’t seem to be doing anything for the fire ghoul. She leaned forward and tapped a few buttons on the console turning the air conditioning on. Maybe a cool blast of air to the face would be better for him. She turned the knob and cranked it up to full blast.

“It’ll get cool in a minute, ok? Till it does, you need to at least keep your eyes opened up. Keeping them closed isn’t gonna help, bud. Trust me, your whole head will keep on spinning like it’ll just pop right off,” she turned back to check the light, it had turned green and she slowly pushed down on the gas. They passed a few other siblings of sin who were out and about doing some shopping in town. She honked at them and waved. Ember slumped down in the passenger seat, not wanting to be seen and shamed.

Ember wished at that moment he had just stayed at the abbey. He would miss out on these so-called incredible tacos, but at least he would be safely and firmly planted to the ground and not being hurled around in a metal death trap. He wanted nothing more than to shove his entire head out the car window and gulp in as much air as physically possible, praying to Lucifer that he would be granted mercy and that the trip would be over soon.  
“Hey, Dewdrop? I think I have something for motion sickness but I’m not a hundred percent positive it would work with your, um,” she waved her hand about trying to find the word that hovered on the tip of her tongue.” I guess your biology, or whatever. But you’re more than welcome to it if you think it would help,” she leaned across and popped open the glove box for him.

“Do you get carsick too?” he reached inside and moved some fast food napkins around and searched for some plastic bottle he hoped would do the trick.

“Oh, yeah. If I’m not the one driving, I usually get motion sick. It’s why I can’t travel along with the band or anything. I signed up once when I was still a novice. I thought it was gonna be some really awesome thing, right? All of the people who volunteered with Papa Emeritus the First kept telling me how great it was to be that close to him and watching him out doing his thing and just helping to spread the Word that way, you know. So, me being really eager in my younger days to step up and prove I’m worth my salt, I go and sign up to help with a few local shows. ‘Course by that time, Papa and handed the mitre over to The Second, and so it was all new again,” she laughed at the memory. “One of the brothers had to drive me back here because I couldn’t deal with the constant rocking of the tour bus,” she cackled. “I didn’t even get to help lift a single thing because I didn’t even make it to the first venue before I was green and retching,” she stopped suddenly as a thought came across her mind. 

“Wait, so how come you can deal with being on the tour bus, but you can’t even handle riding in a car?” she glanced over to Ember real quick. He swallowed hard as he was trying desperately to will his stomach into submission and down from its rebellion.

“Cars are different,” he muttered. He kept on swallowing gulps of air, hoping it would all be over soon enough. The air conditioning was helping, but he had long given up on finding the pill bottle in Olivia’s messy glove box. Unfortunately, he knew the only thing that would make a difference at all, would be the car coming to a halt, them getting out of it, and then lighting the damn thing on fire so it wouldn’t upset him or cause him any more trouble.

“So is this a thing for all ghouls or is it more so just a ‘you’ thing? Because the one ghoul I work with said he would never ride into town with me on errand day ever again,” Olivia tried to move the conversation along thinking if she could get Ember to talk maybe it would take his mind off the unsettling nausea.

“are you certain is isn’t just your driving?” Ember said snarkily. Olivia swatted at him playfully but Ember yelped the second her hand left the steering wheel. “No! Keep your hand on the thing!” he flailed his hands in front of him before grabbing onto his seat belt for dear life. Olivia had been startled at first, thinking she had done something wrong, but she placed her hand back on the wheel for him.

“I’m sorry, Dew. Are you gonna be alright?” Olivia chanced a look over to the ghoul in her passenger seat. He looked ready to throw up, fight the car, or fling himself out at a moment’s notice. It was a tossup of all three if she had asked him. “Do you need me to stop or pull over or something? I think there might be some bottled water in the backseat, I can grab it for you,” she offered. Ember shook his head stiffly. “Ok, well, if you change your mind or need me to stop, I will. Just let me know,” she put her blinker on and turned onto the next street before stopping at another traffic light.

They drove the rest of the way in a very thick silence. Ember tried his best to just focus on the road instead of allowing his brain to cause him any more panic. He had hated cars and driving ever since Ifrit had convinced him to sneak out one night for a beer run. Not only was he an absolutely terrible driver, he later confessed to Dew it had been his first time behind the wheel. Ember had never been able to let go of that particularly harrowing experience. It was a wonder, no, a miracle, that the Clergy never found out and exorcised them straight back to hell. He promised to never tell anyone, if Ifrit promised he would never ever ask him to ride along with him ever again.

Olivia had grinded to a halt outside a small, unassuming red apartment block. She shut the engine off and unbuckled her seat belt.

“Look, you made it!” she smiled a big and happy smile over to Ember as she patted his thigh. “C’mon. Let’s go up and get some tacos! They’re well worth the trouble, I promise,” she squeezed his thigh, missing how Ember flushed a bright pink and swallowed hard. This was going to be a very interesting day indeed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for stopping by and reading my silly little story. I hope you enjoy it.  
> If there are any typos or grammatical mistakes just let me know. I generally type this up really late at night.  
> I'll see you in the next chapter!


	6. The Cook

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ember survived the car ride, but will he survive the cook?

He was just grateful to finally be stopped and to get out of the offending vehicle. He eyed the building with slight apprehension.

Olivia had already gotten out and pocketed her keys, adjusting her pants. She leaned her head back and shielded her eyes from the mid –day sun as she looked up towards the top of the building. Ember stepped up onto the curb next to her.

“Do we just need to wait here or?”

“No, we have to go up to get them. Plus, you get to meet Ocelot! I’m sure you’ll like him, Dew,” the sisters phone dinged at that moment so she missed the grimace across Ember’s face. He didn’t like the light and airy tone she took when speaking about this guy. “Ah, perfect timing; he says they’re almost done and ready to go.”

She had to tug on Ember’s shirt sleeve to get his attention. He flinched slightly before following behind Olivia as she waved him on.

“So how do you know this guy again?” Ember asked as he jogged a step ahead to get the door for the woman.

“Oh, I thought I mentioned we were friends? He used to work at this little café we used to frequent back when I moved here. It’s long since been closed by now though. The owner was a real shady guy; he stole people’s wages, embezzled money from the company, withheld paychecks from some of the staff unless they did stuff for him. You know, just generally gross person,” she pushed the button for the elevator before she saw the sign on the metal door saying ‘closed for renovation’. She huffed out a deep sigh. “Ok, then, I suppose we are taking the stairs,” she groaned.

Ember was silently relieved. The less time he had to spend confined in metal death traps the better. Though he would go along with it whenever anyone else would complain about the lack of elevators within the old abbey, he secretly liked having to take the stairs instead. Though, his rooms were on the first floor so it worked out great for him, unless he went venturing into the catacombs, crypts, or ritual chambers deep beneath the church. Those were very narrow and steep steps and more often than not they were slippery with some unknown residue.

He didn’t have to worry about it whenever he visited friends either, because the majority of them consisted of other ghouls in his own building. Besides, he had overheard that the nicer apartments that had elevators it wasn’t uncommon to find various people in them going at it from time to time. He was very sure that unless he was participating, being that close to someone just so you could go to another floor would just be uncomfortable.

Inside the old church, it was mostly stairs, up until recently. With the aging Papa Nihil, the senior clergy advised that elevators be installed for his comfort and ease of mobility. Sister Imperator had actually overseen the project herself and insisted that they match along with the rest of the inner decorum. Therefore, they were antique styled open faced models with iron grates. Ember despised them after he had almost caught his tail in one once. He avoided them at all cost and kept to his rickety metal and slippery stone staircases from then on.

Olivia was nearly out of breath by the third floor. Ember had passed her and only turned when he noticed she was no longer beside him.

“Just… gimme a minute. I just need to catch my breath ok?”

“Don’t you go up and down steps all day in the library? Come on, you should be used to this by now,” he shoved his hands in his pockets as she continued to ascend to the next landing. What he didn’t see when he turned back around was Olivia sticking her tongue out and giving him the middle finger.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” she took a deep breath and together they trudged up the last two flights.

“Ok, so, Oscar’s room is 611, so it’s all the way down and,” she looked around to see which side of the half was even or odd. Evens were on the left it seemed. “It’s gonna be the 6th one on the right.”

“How do you not seen to remember if you come here so much?”

“I never said I come by often, Dew. I simply said he makes the best tacos in town.”

“Because he’s the only one who makes tacos in town,” Ember muttered under his breath, snickering behind the sister’s back.

A few strides later and they arrived at Oscar’s door. It was typical of any other apartment door, but what set his place apart from the others in the bland hallway was his doormat. It was in a half moon shape and looked like a stereotypical hard shell taco. Ember couldn’t help but to grin at it. Olivia knocked on the floor. A voice bellowed ‘Just a minute!’ from the other side. They heard something thudding to the floor and then a few clangs before a loud curse and stomping growing louder as it came closer to the door.

It swung open and in the doorway stood a heavyset man with rich chestnut skin, deep brown eyes, and a mess of thick black hair. A leg of his glasses was missing, making the glasses on his nose sit slightly askew.

“Olivia!” he exclaimed and moved to embrace the woman heartily with a laugh. “It’s been a while so I made some special just the way you like them,” he beamed. His eyes lit up as he spoke to her. Olivia grinned and took a tentative step back beside Ember. It was then that Oscar finally seemed to acknowledge the other man’s presence and that Olivia hadn’t come alone.

“Ah, and you brought…?” he tilted his head waiting for Olivia to answer.

“A friend, Oscar. His name is Ember,” the ghoul puffed out his chest a bit at hearing his given name being used over his silly nickname. He smiled a broad and toothy smile to show the man how sharp and painful his teeth could be. HE was highly proud at how the man’s, Oscar’s, face fell slightly. Ember offered his hand first.

“Pleased to meet you,” he said smoothly.

“And likewise,” Oscar gripped the ghoul’s hand and attempted a rather strong and hard handshake as if it would somehow gauge Ember’s manhood. Olivia rolled her eyes, knowing what was silently taking place between the two men.

“Ok, Oscar, Ember, Ember, Oscar,” she gestured to the men as she named them. “Can we come in now?”

“Of course, of course,” he stepped aside to see Olivia in, following before Ember, leaving him to shut the metal door behind them. “Have a seat and make yourselves comfortable. I was just about to make the empanadas. Well, fill and fry them anyway. I’ve already made the filling and dough so it won’t be too long,” he ushered us forward into his small living room as he picked back up a stained and rather greasy white apron with three pockets. 

Ember eyed them as he watched the man tie the strings back behind him tightly. He turned the image over in his mind, knowing he recognized it from somewhere. Ember ignored the small talk between them as he closed his eyes, deep in thought.

When it finally occurred to him, he smacked his knee and grinned broadly. ‘He stole it from the abbey’s kitchens. But that would mean…’ the gears turned slowly for the fire ghoul. ‘He’s a brother of sin, but I don’t recognize him. He seems to be old enough to have already taken his vows though, to become a senior sibling,’ Ember watched the man as he sealed and crimped the edges of the dough together with a fork. His mouth was moving, obviously talking about something, but Ember had long since tuned him out. Whatever it was he said seemed to have been funny because Ember felt the shaking of laughter emanating from Sister Olivia.

He glanced over to her and smiled despite himself. It was a beautiful and natural laugh and his stomach fluttered at the way her eyes crinkled up and how her lips broadened and parted when she laughed. Even her nose scrunching up was cute to the ghoul. He allowed himself this moment to stop and appreciate just how beautiful and breathtaking the woman was. It was like a wave of warmth spread over his entire body; which wasn’t unusual because he was a fire demon, but what made it unique was that it held a gentle softness to it. He thought it equated to feeling the first rays of sun in the spring after all the frost and snow had dissipated. 

The casual conversation had slowed to a halt and he found Olivia looking down to her lap. Ember followed her line of sight and blushed when he saw his hand had been casually sitting on her thigh. He immediately withdrew it and laced his fingers tightly together in his own lap. He cleared his throat and tried to feign interest in a very awful oil painting on a black velvet canvas across the room.

This didn’t go unnoticed by the cook, who appeared next to the old and battered recliner to the left of the seated pair. He held up two large paper sacks which were already sporting fresh grease spots.

“Order up, Twigs,” he smiled at Olivia.

“Ugh, how many times are you going to continue calling me that after I have repeatedly begged you to drop that stupid ass nickname?” she shook her head and stood up, reaching for the bags of food. The cook quickly yanked them just out of her grasp.

“Twigs, don’t be like that,” he grinned a lopsided smirk at her, choosing to completely ignore her wishes for the umpteenth time.

Ember stood up behind Olivia and placed his hand on the small of her back without thinking. He could feel his element bubbling and boiling beneath the surface of his skin.

“She asked you not to call her that,” he frowned, squaring his shoulders up.

“No, Em, it’s ok, he didn’t mean anything by it,” Olivia spoke softly and quietly over her shoulder at him. Ember moved his arm up to her side now, essentially holding her by the waist, protectively. Oscar found the situation relatively amusing.

“A ‘friend’ huh?” he huffed out a grunt of a laugh. “Sure seems like some ‘friend’ Twigs, or do they all hold you like that?”

“How much did you say I owed you for the food?” Olivia asked trying to diffuse the now palpable tension in the air around them.

“No charge or you, _mi corazon_ ,” he grinned that sickening smirk again. He lowered the bag of food into the woman’s hands. “But for the _diablillo_ , I charge double,” he shot Ember a rather nasty, challenging look. 

Olivia could feel the heat from Ember’s hand starting to get hotter and hotter through her shirt. It seemed to be radiating outward from his palm and spreading through her. She took the bags and shoved them against Ember’s abdomen and reached into her back pocket for her wallet. She pulled out a few bills, thrusting them into Oscar’s chest.

“Here, tell your _abuelita_ I said hello, will you?” she gave a short, curt smile and nodded to the door. “Come on, Ember,” she stepped around the cook, who stared after them, a look of disbelief on his face. She flung open the door and ushered Ember out first before he could say anything inflammatory. She made sure to give Oscar the most icy and angry glare she could muster, which to be frank, wasn’t very difficult for her.

After crossing the threshold and walking briskly down the hallway, Ember was almost afraid to speak up. Almost being the key word here.

“So what was that about?”

“Not now, Dewdrop,” she said shortly.

The ghoul nodded in turn and stayed quiet the entire rest of the descent down the staircases to the main floor entrance. Olivia muttered to herself quietly starting on the fourth floor and grew louder and more animated the further down they went.

“You know, I’ve always hated that fucking stupid ass nickname! I am always reminded when I see his stupid face why I fucking hate seeing him. He just couldn’t ever let shit go and just refuses to let the past stay there where it belongs! Ugh, Lucifer! Who the fuck does he think he is?!” she practically stomped down the last flight of stairs.

Ember remained just as silent as death, keeping his mouth shut and letting the woman just get it all out of her system. The air ghoulettes taught him that it was far better to just sit back and listen instead of always interrupting with ways to fix the situation. Sometimes it’s just best to complain about it and move on.

Olivia continued fuming all the way through the lobby and out to the car.

 

Oh shit. The car.

How bad would her driving be now that she was upset? Ember knew at that moment, this is precisely how we was going to die.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My Spanish is poor, but here are some translations:  
> mi corazon- my heart  
> diablillo- imp  
> abuelita- granny
> 
> Thank you for stopping by and reading. I'll hopefully have another chapter banged out by this weekend.  
> Tell me your thoughts about what you think happened with Olivia and Oscar, and let me know how you feel about everything so far.  
> <3


	7. Take Shelter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ember survived the cook, but how well will he survive the car ride?
> 
> Better yet, can't we just eat already?

‘Well, it was fun while it lasted,’ he thought.

They got inside the car, buckled in and Ember held onto the greasy bags in his lap. Olivia started the engine and reached down to the radio.

“You have a musical preference, Dew?”

“Uh no, I’m good. Whatever you want is fine,” he offered a weak smile that belied his apprehension. He was mentally preparing for the worst, when Behemoth came across the speakers. Olivia turned it up.

“Sorry, no Ghost today. I’m more in a mood for something harder and louder and more BPM.”

“Why not Gojira then?” Ember suggested. Olivia tried to hand him the ipod with the aux cable.

“If you find something else, go ahead. Otherwise, feel free to plug in your own phone for whatever you want,” she said and noted that he had his hands rather full with the bags, so she just placed the ipod down on his thigh.  
Olivia put the car into gear and checked the mirrors again before pulling out into traffic. Ember clenched the tops of the bags in his fists, concentrating on the harsh drumming and pulsing of the electric guitars playing a bit too loudly over the car’s stereo. He wasn’t really a big fan, preferring other artists over Behemoth, but he didn’t mind it if it was what Olivia needed and wanted to listen to at that moment.

Surprisingly her driving became much better and easier on the ghoul to handle. He was unsure if it was the music or what, but he was thankful and relieved at any rate, so he wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth on this one. That was until she missed the turn to return to the church. Ember recognized the sign from as many times as he had seen it from the tour bus interior.

“Sister Olivia?”

“Hm? What’s up, Dewdrop?” she turned the volume down slightly to hear him better.

“Sister, you missed the turn,” he said worriedly.

“Oh? Did I? I guess we just have to go somewhere else to eat lunch then,” she giggled. “Nah, we aren’t going back to the abbey just yet. Besides, don’t you ever start to feel like you’re cooped up in there? It’s an off day, a nice one at that, and I don’t want to go and spend it being back at home. I hope you’re alright with that. Probably should have at least asked first. Sorry, Dewdrop.”

“Where are we going then?” Ember swallowed thickly. Suddenly his nerves caught up with him and he began to feel ill again.

“Somewhere,” was all Olivia offered the ghoul. 

Ember was all for adventure. He was a ghoul after all. He loved the unknown and the mischief it usually brought. It is why he was with the Ghost project. He got to go and travel the topside and see what this strange world had to offer. Plus, he had a never ending string of followers practically throwing themselves at his feet every ritual. He lived to be adored this way, to feel needed and wanted, even if it was only superficial. 

That being said however, he was unsure of his current predicament after meeting her so-called ‘friend’ Oscar, who in fact, didn’t seem very friendly at all.

“I’ll only go along with you if you will tell me about how you really know that guy back there. He had an abbey issued apron. You don’t seem the type to take stuff from the abbey and just give it to people on the outside, Sister Olivia,” Ember tilted his head as he spoke.

“You don’t miss anything, do you? Heh,” Olivia mused. She flipped her head as if to toss her hair out from her face. Not much had fallen from her bun, but Ember supposed it was enough to get in her way. His own hair often misbehaved in a similar fashion.

“Alright, I’ll tell you,” she conceded, “but only when we get to where we are going.”

Ember sighed, but agreed. Perhaps getting more distance between him and the old ‘friend’ was the best idea. He did not like Oscar, or the way he treated Olivia earlier. He grimaced at the fresh memory. It only raised his agitation and gave him the irresistible itch to fight.

“Good. I want to at least eat first, I’m famished.” Olivia merged into the turn lane and just barely caught the light. “hand me a taco, will you?” she held her hand out expectantly.”

“No.”

“What? Give me a taco, Dew,” she said more firmly.

“I would rather eat together with you,” he hurried out the excuse. In truth he didn’t trust her enough to eat and drive. He was still worried about dying from her driving, even if it had become marginally more bearable. 

“Aww, ok then. That’s rather cute of you to say, Dewdrop,” she smiled, allowing Ember to relax somewhat.

“Can I know where we’re going at least?”

“Mmm I guess so. We’re close by anyway so I’m surprised you don’t know or haven’t been able to figure it out yet,” she said, making another turn. “I thought it was a nice enough day to go out and eat lunch at Tinnero Eklandskap, well, a part of it anyway. It’s pretty; I know you’ll like it… I think,” she glanced over to Ember, still smiling warmly.

“I’ve never been,” the ghoul said.

“Meh, you probably have and just maybe not have realized it. I’m not sure how far you all go out to erm… hunt,” she said, the last word rolling off her tongue like bile.

“We aren’t usually allowed off grounds for that sort of thing, Sister. I mean, it doesn’t stop some of us, but I don’t usually make it a habit to go off with those that do.”

“And here I was thinking you would be leader of the pack and chief rule breaker extraordinaire.” She laughed. Ember looked down at his lap sheepishly. He had no idea how to tell her that his confidant and cocky persona was just that- a persona. It was mostly all an act on stage. Except for the parts where he threw picks at Aether- that was very much real. As well as the sexual prowess, that was very much him too. But since he only rarely mingled with the human brothers and sisters of sin at the church, they all assumed he was just an angry and hot-headed spitfire who liked to lick everything he got his hands on.

And then there was the whole ‘Dewdrop’ nickname thing. He still wasn’t sure who had spilled the beans on him being part water ghoul to Aether, but he was pretty sure that it was he who had started calling him that and it caught on like wildfire. Not to mention the soap-eating rumor. He knew for a fact that was Aether. It only happened once! It had been a solid mini soap bar that looked like something edible and so he bit into it. It wasn’t his fault that he didn’t know it was a tiny bar of soap! The thoughts made him create a mental reminder to find something to throw at the big quintessence ghoul when they made it back to the abbey.

He had kept quiet for the rest of the short drive to the park they were headed to. Ember was hoping he could feign motion-sickness as an excuse for being so silent this go round. They drove past a large wooden welcome sign and the pavement changed from a black top to a barely there anymore, brown paved road. The change was rough and Ember clutched the bags to himself a little tighter.

“Don’t worry, we’re almost there, ok?” Olivia said as she took a curve a little too sharp. Ember no longer had to fake his motion sickness. It was very real, and he was very nauseous.

Up ahead was a clearing with a decent amount of parking spaces, a handful of cars occupying some of them, and a walkway that led uphill to a few picnic tables. What caught his attention the most however, was the view. There was a very large lake lined with ancient oak trees as far as the eye could see. He wondered why no one ever bothered to mention this to him, that there was something so breath taking practically in their backyard. And then he remembered his station, and he sighed.

When he turned his head to see Olivia’s reaction, he found she was already staring at him. A giddy smile played on her face.

“Told you it was worth it. Now how about those tacos?” she eyed the bag in the ghouls lap, licking her lips in anticipation. He almost made a rude remark about how most partners give his crotch that look before they dig in. But, he thought better.

“Yeah,” he said instead, breathless. Ember looked to the bags and saw how they were only slightly squashed from the way he had gripped them. It could have been worse, he thought. At least they’re still edible.

Olivia had already unbuckled and gotten out of the car and gone to open up Ember’s door for him. She swung the door wide and bowed slightly.

“M’lady,” she said in a faux-butler impersonation. She looked up, grinning. “Come on, I wanna eat already, so move it.”

“Ok, alright, alright, damn. Here, hold these,” he shoved the bags to Olivia, who eagerly snatched them and scuttled up to a picnic table.

“Wait! Hey, Ember!” she called down to him. “Will you grab some napkins from the dash? I’m pretty sure we’ll need them!” she yelled out at him. He sighed, turned around and grabbed the napkins like she asked, and closed the door. He had just started up the hill when Olivia hollered at him again. “Hey,Dew!” 

Ember stopped and hung his head before lifting it back up and yelling back at her. “What?!”

“Will you grab two bottles of water for us? Please? Thank you!” she smiled broadly. Ember sighed more heavily this time and one again, returned to the car. He fished two bottles out from the case in the back seat just as she requested, and slammed the door a little harder than he meant to.

“If you need another thing from this car, you can come and get it yourself!” he teased. He could tell she was laughing from the way her shoulders shook.

He trudged up the hill to the spot Olivia had chosen. She was already hunched over and practically drooling at the bag. Ember plopped down onto the wooden bench. Olivia looked up at him, beaming.  
“Congrats, Ember. You lived to eat your delicious and messy tacos. Ready to dig in?”

“Ugh, Lucifer, yes! I’m so fucking hungry,” he uttered as he reached in to nab one of the individually wrapped treats. The paper crinkled and was nearly soaked through with juices and oil oozing out from the cooked meat. Ember opened up wide and was about to clamp down when Olivia cleared her throat and interrupted his train of thought.

“What, do ghouls not say grace?” she teased, raising an eyebrow up at him.

“Hell Satan!” he said with a grin and devoured half of the soft shelled taco in one bite. Olivia laughed and began to chow down on her own taco, though with less enthusiasm as shown by the ghoul.

“How is it?” she questioned through her mouth full of food. Ember only nodded, dropping the taco and reaching over to uncap a bottle of water. He had clearly bitten off more than he could chew and was not expecting it to be as hearty as it was. 

“Easy there, little light of mine, don’t want you to choke,” Olivia sneered as she took another bite. Ember narrowed his eyes at her as he drank and swallowed audibly.

“You know, I should be giving you that kind of warning,” he smirked. He thought he had her when he saw Olivia roll her eyes.

“Dew, they only put choking warnings on small things, so I guess it’s only natural for you to say that.”

Ember nearly threw the other uneaten half of his taco at her. If it had been another ghoul to say such things to him, he would have thrown it and launched himself over the table at them. Instead, he sat in stunned silence for the second time today. Olivia grinned a shit-eating grin, finished up the late bite before balling up the wrapper and tossing it into the bag. Ember remained motionless, just watching her.

She pulled out taco number two, unwrapped it, and took a rather large bite out of it. The fillings were poking out and dripping from the bottom. He noticed when she leaned up she had a blob of crema on her chin. A small grin played on his lips at the sight.

“You think you’re so funny, don’t you?” he picked up his taco and took another bite, smaller this time so he wouldn’t choke again.

“Mhm,” she smiled through her mouthful, he eyes crinkling at the corners.

“Well,” he swallowed. “You aren’t, just so you know,” he said pointedly, shoving the remains of his taco in his mouth. This apparently amused the sister, as she giggled, tilting her head back and kicking her feet a bit. She swallowed and licked her lips clean from the juices, but she missed a good portion of the tangy sour cream. Ember wasn’t about to point it out to her either. He wanted to wait and see if she figured it out on her own or not.  
They ate in relative silence for a little while, until a loud clap of thunder broke overhead. Neither had noticed the clouds rolling in as they stole glances at each other from across the wooden table. They looked up, in tandem. What had been a beautiful clear and sunny day became a grey and dismal looking scene.

“We should probably pack it up, just in case the bottom falls out,” Olivia said, placing the cap on her water bottle.

“The bottom of what?”

“The clouds? I mean to say, it looks like it’s about to pour down rain,” she gave Ember a rather strange look.

“You say strange things sometimes, Sister Olivia,” Ember wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and crumpled up the wrapper on his third or fourth taco and dropped it into the paper bag. “Besides, it’s just a bit of rain. Water surely won’t hurt you.”

“But Ember, don’t you know I’ll melt?” she grinned. He tilted his head in confusion. “Nevermind. What about you though? You’re a fire ghoul; I thought you don’t like getting wet? Don’t you all prefer dry and arid weather?” the sister folded down the tops of the bags when she felt the first drop. She looked across at Ember, who was still staring at her, his head still stilted. A raindrop splashed onto her cheek. “Oh no,” was all she managed to before the rain poured down in heavy fat drops all around them. Olivia quickly grabbed everything within her reach and left the rest for Ember.

“Here! This way!” she yelled over her shoulder at him. “There’s a weather station we can wait out the storm in!”

Ember grabbed up the water bottles and napkins before sprinting to catch up to her. He wished she would calm down and quit worrying over him. He wanted to tell her that incidentally, he loved the rain and the way it felt as it caressed his skin. He ducked in behind her into the storm shelter, shaking out his hair not unlike a dog.

He didn’t think that through however, as he had subsequently gotten Olivia spattered with the rain he shook off. She looked at him flatly.

“Really, Dew? Really?” she deadpanned, rolling her eyes. “Ugh, ghouls…”

“What?” he smirked. “I thought you wanted me to make you wet?”

Olivia, busy shaking out her wet shirt and hair, stopped and glared at him. She couldn’t really be mad at him, seeing as she had also teased him a handful of times throughout the day. The sister turned around and looked across the heavy sheets of rain pelting down against the massive oak. “I guess we’re stuck here till it calms down or blows over.”

“Couldn’t… couldn’t we just drive back to the church? I mean it isn’t like it’s really that far to the car,” he gestured with a swipe of his hand the general direction the car was parked. “We could have just ran to the car and then gone back home. Sure, we would need to clean out the upholstery and air it out so it doesn’t get that weird mildew-y smell.”

“Oh no, not happening. I am absolutely not driving in this mess!” she blurted out.

“I don’t see why not. It isn’t that bad. Just a little rain, Sister.”

“I couldn’t even see three feet in front of me if I wanted to. It isn’t safe, Dewdrop,” she finally settled down onto the wooden floor of the glorified shed. The walls were wooden as well, but the roof sounded as if it were made of tin, judging by the sound of the heavy rain belting against it. She sighed heavily. “Besides, I don’t drive well in the rain. I’m sorry, but it looks like you’re stuck with me for just a while longer.”

Ember plopped down on the floor, leaning against the wall opposite Olivia. He tilted his head back, letting it rest against the board. “At least we can dry out, I suppose. And finish eating,” he cut his eyes over to Olivia, who was still clutching the bags of food. He scrambled over to her and reached out to take a bag from her so he could continue munching. Olivia took the water bottles from him and set things up again like how they were on the picnic table. She took a napkin and wiped her face off, removing the bit of crema she missed earlier.

“Too bad you aren’t a water ghoul, huh? You could just absorb the water and stuff and I wouldn’t be soaked to the bone. Or maybe like you could make it so we wouldn’t have gotten wet at all,” she mimed a circle over her head, touching her fingertips together. “You know, like an invisible umbrella!” she said excitedly.

“I’m sorry, what?” Ember finished chewing and swallowed before he carried on. “Do you- are you- how… Is this really how you think our elements work?” he could barely hide his grin. Olivia dropped her arms back down to her lap. She blushed, nodding slightly. Ember huffed out a laugh and pinched the bridge of his nose. It reminded her of Air a little. 

He set his taco down before steepling his hands together, propping his elbows on his knees. “How do you, rather, where did you hear this from?”

“Obviously I read about it. I do work in the library, remember? I have access to far more than the average initiate, you know. I have unlimited access to all the archival resources, including books written in Ghoulish,” she crossed her arms over her chest, feeling slightly smug. Ember arched an eyebrow at her.

“You can read Ghoulish?” he asked incredulously.

“I can read translations of the books written in Ghoulish…” she deflated slightly. The ghoul across from her took a deep breath before exhaling through his nose like a bull. She wasn’t sure if he was upset at her or not from the way he was acting. It wasn’t as if she had done anything wrong. She was just curious was all, and it was part of her job to go through and take inventory of the archival records, so she was just doing her job. That’s all.  
“I don’t know who translated those, but that’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard,” he laughed. “We can’t just stop the rain from falling,” his shoulders shook as he silently continued to giggle.

“’We’? What do you mean ‘we’?” 

“I mean us ghouls, in general,” he coughed, straightening himself. “We can’t stop acts of nature like how you’re thinking,” he hoped his quick cover wouldn’t be noticeable. No one besides a very select few knew he was part water ghoul.

“So, you’re saying you can’t really control fire?”

“What? Of course I can!” he closed his eyes, brow knitting together at trying to figure out how to explain what he meant without saying too much. He breathed in deeply before puffing it all out through pursed lips. “Ok. Let’s look at it this way,” his tongue darted out to lick his lips. Ember brought one hand up and wiggled his fingers to get Olivia’s attention. He snapped his fingers and a small ball of fire danced and flickered on the tip of his index finger. “I can create fire, like this. I can wave my hand and light up a fireplace, candles, whatever. I can snuff it out with a thought,” he demonstrated by dimming the little ball and making it burn out. “But I cannot control or stop an active volcano.”

Olivia studied his finger, her eyes glittering curiously. She looked from his hand to his eyes. “Well no, because that would be more for an Earth ghoul, right?” she mused. She could tell she was slowly pushing the fire ghoul’s buttons.

“What, no!,” he groaned. For a split second he thought he had impressed the woman, but it turns out she was just toying with him after all. His shoulders drooped a little, defeated. “Nevermind, let’s just hope the storm passes soon, ok?” he picked up the taco he set down a few moments before and continued to eat it. “I’m sure we have stuff waiting for us to get done when we get back.”

Olivia looked down at the soppy bag and felt a prang of guilt for indirectly hurting the ghoul’s feelings. She didn’t mean anything by it, she just couldn’t help herself. Ember made for an easy prey. She slowly picked out another taco and began to unwrap it, this time folding the paper back to catch the fillings as she ate.

“I didn’t mean to keep you from band work today, Dew. I thought you had an off day like I did since it’s Saturday. You aren’t going to get in trouble are you?” she took a small bite, and despite her best efforts, fillings still fell out and onto her lap. She groaned, looking down at the plop of white crema and bits of tomato. 

Ember shoved the last bite into his mouth and picked up a napkin, reaching over to clean up the small mess on Olivia’s thigh. He wadded it up and tossed it to the side.

“Nah, it’s mostly laundry and general cleaning chore stuff,” his eyes darted up to meet Olivia’s. “It’s nothing too serious.”

The sister chewed for a moment before swallowing. “Do you always talk with your mouth full?” she smirked crookedly.

Ember had dared to open the untouched second bag. Inside were four tacos and the two empanadas. He picked at random and pulled out what would be his fourth or fifth taco. He had lost count. He began to peel the paper away from the wet tortilla and took a bite, grinning as he did so.

“Yesh,” he said between the mouthful of food. “Pretty much. Why do you ask?”

“Just wondering if you knew or not,” she uncapped her water and drank the last of it.

“I don’t think about it,” he said before swallowing. “I just eat,” juices began to flow freely from the meats and down his mouth. He seemed not to notice, or if he did, he just didn’t care.

“Hey, you got a little,” she motioned to her mouth, in a general circle. Ember licked his lips, but didn’t get the whole trail. She tried to show him again, and once more, he swiped his tongue across his mouth and raised his eyebrows in a silent question of ‘Did I get it?’. She shook her head no. “Here, just let me,” she leaned forward on her hands and knees and brushed her thumb under his lower lip, just at the top of his chin.

Ember could feel his heart thumping away under his sternum. It thundered so loudly in his ears he wondered if Olivia could hear it. The woman before him parted her lips as she searched over his face. He felt the blush creep across his face; he could see a similar one flush over Olivia’s. He slowly set his food down, swallowing audibly. They were so close together, both scarcely breathing. His eyelids seemed to become heavier the longer he gazed at the Sister. This was it, the moment he had been hoping and secretly longing for all afternoon had arrived.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for stopping by and reading! It's a bit later than I anticipated but you know, life and stuff. Gets in the way sometimes, you know?


	8. Can you hear the thunder?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The moment of truth has arrived for Ember and Sister Olivia. What will become of the storm of emotions once the rain has passed?

At that moment, a loud roar of thunder crashed around the pair. Olivia darted forward, terrified at the sudden loud noise, head butting the small fire ghoul in the process. She screeched at the collision, grasping her head in pain. Ember instinctively wrapped his arms around the woman. This was not the outcome he was expecting. Pain bloomed to life all around his mouth. He grimaced slightly and peeled the woman away from his chest to assess the damage to her. He knew no matter what she did, he would be fine, he was an unholy demon from hell; Olivia on the other hand was but human with very delicate and fragile… everything.

Blood poured from his now-busted lip and down onto the Sister of Sin’s chest and shirt. She whimpered slightly, rubbing her forehead. Gingerly, she eased open her eyes, white sparkles danced in her vision. She hadn’t planned on ramming herself face first into him like that, but she couldn’t help it. Loud and unexpected noises frightened her. She immediately clasped her hands over her mouth in horror at the sight before her.

“Fuck! Fuck, Ember, I’m sorry! I’m so sorry! Are you alright?!” she exclaimed as she reached out a tentative hand to the ghoul’s face, but Ember brushed it aside so he could check over her instead. He smoothed over her cheek and forehead, feeling a small lump beginning to form under the skin there. Heavy drops of blood streamed from Ember’s mouth and onto Olivia’s shirt. She was trembling, but willed herself to remain as still as possible under the ghoul’s worried scrutiny. “I’m sorry,” she began again, tears beginning to pool in her eyes. “I’m so sorry, did I break your nose?”

“Hah, no, I’m fine. I’ll be ok I promise, now come here,” Ember scooped her up closer and cradled her against his chest with one hand to try to calm her down. He then maneuvered her legs so she was sitting in his lap. Olivia trembled, crying onto the warm ghoul. He shushed her, rocking their bodies back and forth gently in an attempt to calm and soothe her. “Shh, shh, it’s ok. It’s alright, it’s just thunder,” he said softly, looking down to stroke over her hair. He noticed he was spilling blood all over her shirt. Groaning softly to himself, he then sucked in his lip to try to quell the blood flow.

He felt the absolute worst he had all day. The storm outside their shelter was relentless, showing no signs or hint of stopping any time soon. Ember wished for nothing more than to crawl into a pit and fade away. _‘How fucking stupid do you have to be, Dew?’_ he chided himself. _’Like she was leaning in to kiss you! Fucking pathetic…’_ he clenched his eyes shut as tears of his own threatened to spill over. _‘She was just afraid of the storm and wanted you to hold her… that’s all,_ he lost himself in a deep despair of self pity and loathing.

“Dew?” Olivia’s small and frightened voice waivered to him. “I’m starting to get wet,” she sniffled.

Embers eyes darted open as he stared down to the back of her head incredulously. There’s no goddamn way this had turned her on… though it would be nice if she enjoyed the flash of pain like he had to a degree… He sucked hard on his lip, grinning at the thought.

“The rain is starting to come in this way,” she nodded her head in the direction of the open door frame behind the ghoul. He felt it then, the stinging sheets of chilly rain being blown in their direction. _‘Of course, you fucking idiot… she obviously meant the rain. What a fucking moron, Dew,’_ he rolled his eyes. Ember lowered his hold on Olivia, moving her legs so they were on either side of his waist. He locked his hands together underneath her bottom as he easily rose up to his feet and walked them over to the corner of the shelter. Ember turned so his back was to the wall and he slid down, carefully setting the woman back in his lap in a way that they both could stare out at the storm as it continued to dance through the oak forest.

“There, better?” Ember asked quietly, adjusting his hold on Olivia. She nodded. “You won’t be getting soaked anymore at least. I’m sorry I can’t do anything about your-,” a thunderous bolt of lightning cut him off mid sentence. Olivia shrieked, fisting her hands in his shirt, and buried her face in his chest, shaking.

“I’m s-sorry!” she wailed. “We should never have come out here! We should have just gone s-straight back to the abbey and then you wouldn’t have gotten hurt and we could have eat in peace and sat on my c-couch, and… and,” she sobbed. “We could have just watched a movie and maybe the power wouldn’t have gone out like it normally does, and even i-if it d-did we could have at least been dry and had candles a-and,” she continued bawling vehemently. Ember’s heart was breaking as he too felt like sobbing. The scenario she described sounded perfect and he would have loved to just enjoy the rest of the afternoon and evening with her curled up on the couch, just enjoying each other’s company- even if the wind knocked the abbey’s power out.

Ember was at a loss of what to say. There was so much running through his mind, so much he _wanted_ to say, but couldn’t make the words form correctly. He did the next best thing he could think to do, and that was to purr.

Though the sister was still sniveling and sobbing, she slowly began to quiet and calm down as she listened to the low rumble from within his chest. He had held onto her throughout her entire breakdown, and though she found herself still trembling slightly, she noted her breath was beginning to come to her easier. It was no longer ragged or strained. Ember could hear her occasionally give a small sniffle every now and again however. He continued to stroke over her hair the best he could for it to still be contained in a bun. 

An idea occurred to him then: with her hair up like that it would never dry. He stopped his motions for a moment as he tucked his finger underneath the coil of hair and tugged, gently pulling it down. When the ponytail fell free, he then latched onto the black elastic and brought it down and off completely. He stretched it open and it rolled over his fingers, knuckles and then settled onto his wrist. It was a very practiced and fluid motion. Damp ringlets clung together for the most part, so Ember loosened them with his claws. He scratched over her scalp to help break them up. Strands fell in waves around her shoulders and over Ember’s arm now.

The rain continued its pelting downpour outside the shelter and the food Ember fought carsickness for lay forgotten on the wooden floor. However, none of that seemed to matter to the fire ghoul. He found himself sighing in contentment as he deeply inhaled the scent of Olivia’s warm damp hair. She had settled down finally and continued to snuggle closely to the ghoul’s warm body. Even the ghoul’s busted lip was little more than an afterthought as he continued to lazily lick over the open wound in an effort to get it to close quicker. His saliva would ensure it would, but he still wasn’t quite sure how it worked exactly. Something about ghoul spit having healing properties? Hell if he knew. He was certain however, that it would probably be completely closed up by the end of the day. The swelling might still linger, but that was probably more from the ghoul continuing to suck on it than the actual injury itself. One way or another, he would at least have long since stopped bleeding.

Following that line of thought, he looked down at the woman he held in his arms. He had accidentally bled all over her, her shirt, and probably even her hair. He would have to apologize for that and offer to clean it for her. Sighing, he let his head fall back against the wall. His eyes closed as he resumed petting over Olivia’s hair. A song came to mind and he absentmindedly began to hum along to the tune in his head. The sister roused slightly from whatever thoughts she had lost herself in for the last while, and she tried to pick out what it was she heard through his chest as he hummed. A few moments passed before she finally gave up, unable to figure it out.  
“Hey, Dew? What song is that?” her voice was a bit gruff from the bought of crying earlier. The ghoul stopped, darting his tongue out to lick his lips. He quickly glanced around the enclosure, paranoid from what the Cardinal had drilled into his brain about secrecy regarding the new material.

“It’s something Copia has been working on for the new album. I’m not sure it even has a name yet, but I overheard him practicing it a little while back. Think he was working out the kinks on it probably. It’s got words, but I don’t remember them because it wasn’t my main focus; I was drawn to the melancholy melody of it,” he got a sort of distant look in his eyes as he recalled the haunting style of the work in progress. “It’s really different than the other stuff he’s had us working on, that’s for sure. Do you like it?”

The sister nodded. “From the little I’ve heard I think it’s gonna be pretty nice. I can’t wait to hear what the final product is like if just you humming what you remember of it is that good,” she smiled softly.

Ember grinned down at the woman reclining in his arms. “I like it too. I hope it makes the final cut for the new album. Well, if the Director picks it anyway.”

“I heard he’s such a hard ass to work with, it’s absolutely a nightmare. I overheard some of the former band ghouls talking about it one day. They said he was a real stickler for every single detail to be absolutely perfect otherwise he scrapped it immediately,” Olivia replied as she adjusted her position in Ember’s lap.

“Oh my fucking Satan, you have no idea. The man is a fucking dictator in the studio. And on tour too,” he felt his jaw automatically clench just thinking about the man.

“Hah, can’t be any worse than Sister Imperator,” she giggled.

“I highly beg to differ, Sister Olivia. He’s probably the reason some of the other ghouls went and retired from the project. Well, that plus the fact that the Papas…” he let his train of thought drift into silence when he felt Olivia tense up. He drew her in a bit more tightly to his body when he continued. “Well, at the least, I guess they felt that a Cardinal was very um, what’s the word… I guess strong enough? No, that’s not quite right. Like maybe he wasn’t powerful enough to lead the Ghost Project.”

“Oh!” she turned around in his lap to face him, her face lit up. “So you mean like in pokemon, when a trainer doesn’t have enough badges to train them!” Olivia clapped her hands together as if in prayer and smiled broadly. “I get that, you know. It’s like when Ash had that Charizard and then it wouldn’t listen!”

Ember cocked his head and smirked despite himself. “I have absolutely no idea what half of those words even mean, but sure. I guess it’s like whatever you just said,” he huffed out a laugh. “Copia um, doesn’t ‘have enough badges’ to ‘train’ the old ghouls, and that’s where we came in. Well, some of us anyway,” he said with a sly grin. Though it was common knowledge now that Ember was in the Ghost Project as the lead guitarist, few knew that he had replaced the water ghoul on the previous tour aside from Aether, who it couldn’t help be noted had replaced everyone’s beloved quintessence ghoul, Omega.

Olivia rolled her eyes at Ember’s use of air quotes to emphasize what he was saying, but she laughed nonetheless. How on Satan’s green earth was this woman so endearing even as she looked like a half drowned rat? The fire ghoul wanted to nuzzle into her and never let go. He had fallen even more helplessly for her than he originally thought.

Olivia’s groaning brought him out of his reverie. He looked down to see the woman holding out her blood streaked shirt, pinching it between her index finger and thumb. She glanced up at him with a pained look on her face. “I’m really sorry, Dew. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

Ember sighed, pulling her hand away from her shirt, holding it in his own and wrapping her back safely in his embrace with the other arm. “It’s ok, Sister, really. You heard the thunder and got scared is all. No big deal.”

“No big deal? Dew, how can you say that? You were practically bleeding like a stuck pig!” Olivia withdrew her hand and got up on her knees so they would be at eye level with each other. She braced herself with one hand on his shoulder and the other she gingerly stroked his chin, too afraid to touch his swollen and discoloured lip. “I hurt you, Dewdrop,” she said, beginning to tear up again.

All Ember could hear in her tone was the Cardinal at band practice as he crooned the words from Deus In Absentia, _‘You’re so goddamn frail’_. He scoffed and turned his head quickly away from the woman before him.

“Look, it’s not that big a deal, ok? I’m a ghoul and I’ll heal before the nights over. Besides, I should be the one apologizing; I got your shirt all bloodied up. I’ll toss it in with mine when we get back to the abbey. I gotta do laundry anyway, remember? So, no harm, no foul,” he leveled his eyes back to Olivia. “Speaking of heading back, the rains died down and the sun is out it looks like,” he nodded his head in the direction of the faded glowing.  
Olivia turned around on her knees, looking out of the open doorframe. Ember seized the opportunity to hop up to his feet. His legs both had gone to sleep with the woman sitting in his lap, but he didn’t care at all because it meant she was close to him. His knees on the other hand, popped angrily; the noise drawing Olivia’s attention back to the ghoul. He extended a hand down to her, helping her back up to her feet. 

“Come on, let’s head back,” Ember said softly. 

They cleaned up the rest of the soggy, ruined food and tossed it into the remains of the poor battered paper sacks. Olivia went to step out when Ember gently touched her arm. 

“Sister Olivia?” he looked a little uneasy. “I think it would be best if we swapped shirts, since I… you know,” he gestured to the blood. He didn’t want anyone to think she was injured or bleeding out, or worse, that he had been the one to cause it. They would banish him straight back to hell for sure, Imperator would probably personally see to it herself. Olivia looked down and then back up at him, nodding in agreement. “Here,” he said as he pulled his shirt forward up and over his head. He handed it over to Olivia and grinned at the blush beginning to spread softly over her face.

“Thanks, but um, if you don’t mind I’m just gonna step back in and change real quick. Will you wait outside for me?” she averted her eyes, slightly embarrassed at the thought of having to change shirts out in public.

“Of course, Sister Olivia,” he grinned. “Though, I plan to escape once your back is turned,” he snickered. Olivia whacked him with the shirt before she stepped back inside and shoved him out. She went over to the corner and quickly changed her top. The faded black Pantera shirt she had lent him was incredibly warm and only slightly damp on the front. ‘Probably from my hair,’ she thought. Nevertheless she was grateful to have on at least one article of clothing that was mostly dry. She grabbed up the soggy paper sacks and stepped outside next to the fire ghoul.

“Ready to go?” Ember smiled softly patting her shoulder. Olivia handed him her sea foam coloured shirt so he could put it on, but he just took it and balled it up.

“You said we would swap, are you not gonna put it on?” Olivia crossed her arms over her chest, hiking up an eyebrow at him. He grinned.

“I suggested we swap shirts so no one thought I had attempted to murder you over your driving,” he joked. Olivia whacked him on the arm, giving him her best glare. It was rather ineffective on the fire ghoul, who just found it charming. “Besides, no one would think twice about seeing me topless. The ghouls on the other hand are rather used to it having seen much, much more of me,” he grinned that gorgeous shit-eating grin of his at Olivia. She immediately closed her eyes and brought her hand up again.

“I _don’t_ want to know!” she marched over to the nearby trash bins and chucked the remnants of their impromptu picnic into them. Ember had followed closely behind her and startled her when he spoke.

“Shame we didn’t get to really enjoy them like how you wanted to.”

“Nah, don’t worry about it,” she smiled tightly. Of course she would say that, but she still felt guilty about dragging him out to the park in the first place.

“We didn’t even get to eat the empanadas.”

“Oh no,” she said, her voice laced with sarcasm. “Oh noooo, it’s such a shaaaame,” she said with a sneer as she wiped her hands on her jeans. “Oh well. I’ll make the next ones myself. I don’t want to ever go and deal with Oscar ever again, so sorry bud,” she shrugged. “He was a jerk, and so I bet they weren’t even that good anyway. Food doesn’t taste good when you’re a jerk.”

“You know, you never did tell me how you know that guy exactly,” Ember stated as they began the short trek back to the car.

“Ah, shit. I was hoping you would have forgotten” she sighed. “You’re right though, I did agree to tell you when we got here, and I suppose I did bash you in the face, so I guess I at least owe you that much. A deal’s a deal,” she said as they squished down the muddy gravelly walkway. Though, she remained silent even as they reached the car and got inside. The leather interior was surprisingly cool to have been sealed up. “Guess it’s a good thing we didn’t leave the windows down, huh?” she adjusted the rearview mirror again before starting the engine. 

The music they had been listening to on the way blared to life, scaring Olivia slightly. She jumped and swatted at the stereo, turning the knob all the way down, and then adjusting it to a more reasonable volume. She turned slowly and sheepishly to her passenger. “Heheh, sorry about that,” she cleared her throat. “Right, so, anyway… are you buckled in?” Ember tugged on his seatbelt. It was clear she was trying to delay the inevitable conversation. “Ok then back to the abbey!”

“Sister,” Ember started, wondering if he would have to drag the story out of her or if she would hold up her end of the bargain. Olivia groaned.

“Ok, ok. Oscar and I…” she began, putting the car into gear and backing out of the parking space. She furrowed her brows trying to work out the best way to put it and get it over with. Sighing she continued. “Oscar and I used to be a thing. He did used to work at that café I told you about when I was a novice and yeah, you were right, that _is_ a standard issue apron from the kitchens. It was mine, he kept it,” she tumbled everything all in one breath just to get it out. She concentrated on the road ahead of her as she drove. “And that’s that,” she took a deep shaky breath and exhaled slowly as if it would clear out her mouth.

Ember played absentmindedly with the soiled shirt in his lap as he thought over what the sister had told him. It seemed to him that there was much, much more to the story she wasn’t sharing, but the ghoul thought it best not to try his luck at the moment to pry more from her. If she had wanted to divulge more, she would do so on her own in time, when she was ready. Apparently Olivia decided that that time was now as she continued.  
“He was so nice in the beginning you know? And I had just moved here and didn’t really know anyone just yet. I wasn’t really even settled in at the church yet.”

“You aren’t from here, then?” Ember tilted his head quizzically. Olivia glanced at him, giving him a strange look before shifting her eyes back to the road.

“No? I thought you knew that… I thought it was obvious really,” she laughed. “I’m not from here, no. I’m from America, the Midwest specifically.”

“Oh, I’ve heard of there,” he smiled awkwardly, hoping it would make her feel more at ease. He wasn’t sure why he thought that, just that he did. In truth, he had no real idea what she even meant. Sure, many places have a middle and a western part, but America was rather large and the Midwest was not really even on the western part. He was sure he had been there on tour perhaps, but he would have to be shown on a map, and even then, he wouldn’t be able to recall it in five minutes after it was pointed out to him.

“In any case, I was new fresh blood in the abbey and no one really liked me yet because they thought I was weird.”

Ember chortled, the sound mostly rumbling in his throat. “Aren’t we all?”

“Well, yeah, but I thought it was because I was especially weird, you know? They were trying but I was just afraid and scared and shy and so I kept to myself for the first… oh probably half a year or so. My first real friend was a woman I worked with in the kitchen at the time,” she stopped suddenly and laughed. “They tried me out in the medical wing first before moving me to the kitchens. Let’s just say that it didn’t go so well and that’s why I ended up doing dishes for a while,” she grinned as she put on her blinker to make a right turn. “Anyway, she brought me out of my shell and helped me with the whole shyness thing. Well, for a while anyway. She’s the one who first took me to the café where I met Oscar.”

“What was her name?” Ember interrupted.

“Oh, um, Charlotte. She actually passed away last year from cancer though,” her voice softened at the memory. “It was a really nice service; they even gave her her own plaque in the memorial garden and the dining room for her unyielding service to the abbey’s kitchen for so many years. I thought the enire clergy attended? I mean, I know Papa couldn’t attend and preside over it because he was on tour at the time, but I thought everyone else in the whole abbey attended funerals and services like that?”

“Oh,” Ember lowered his head, focusing on the shirt once more. He noticed there was a hole in one of the underarms of the garment. He was about to slip up and say he was on tour with the Ghost Project as well. “I’m sorry I missed it,” he mumbled.

“She was a really nice lady. I’ve never seen anyone else who could command the whole damn kitchen like that without saying a single word. Charlotte was really one of a kind like that. Everybody liked her and respected her. We still stayed really good friends even when I moved over to the library.”

Silence descended between them as they both were wrapped up in their own thoughts about the conversation. It wasn’t uncomfortable, more of a silent reflection. Shortly the turn to the church came up and they slowed to a stop, hooking a left. The car pulled up to the familiar heavy iron gates once more.

“Welcome back, Sister!” the guard called out as he opened the gates for her. Olivia waved and offered a polite smile to the blond brother. She dropped it as soon as they passed his station.  
“I wonder why he didn’t say anything to you. He clearly had to see you sitting there right?”

Ember shrugged. He figured the guard didn’t recognize him with his full glamour. It wasn’t uncommon for ghouls to leave the abbey to go into town, but most did so with their masks securely on as well as their uniform, even on their off days. 

“I hope it wasn’t cause you’re a ghoul…” Olivia scowled. She continued to drive down the long tree-lined drive and pulled back into the parking deck, almost to the exact same parking spot they pulled out in earlier in the day. The woman’s words pulled a genuine smile from the ghoul. It was true that the ghoulish and human inhabitants of the church lived and worked together, but it didn’t mean that there were none who felt that the ghouls weren’t lesser beings, even if some were members of the Ghost Project.

“I think perhaps he just didn’t recognize me with the full glamour in place is all,” Ember offered.

“I hope so. I mean, I work with plenty of ghouls and I think you’re all pretty neat. You’re just serving our Dark Lord just the same as we are, you just… I don’t know, live longer and have tails and stuff.”

“Thank you, Sister. I appreciate the sentiment,” Ember unbuckled his seatbelt. Olivia had put the car in park and cut the engine off. She sighed deeply, bringing her hand to rest on Ember’s knee. 

“Thanks for hanging out with me today, Dew. I’m glad to have spent time with you,” she smiled, then realized how that must have sounded, because she quickly followed up with “outside of work and the church and stuff, you know,” she giggled awkwardly, blushing.

The fire ghoul smiled warmly and broadly at her. “Me too. Though, I am sorry for causing you a panic attack,” his smile faded slightly as he remembered this morning’s accident. “I didn’t mean to scare you, or hurt you…”

“Hurt me?” Olivia said incredulously. She forced out a laugh. “Dewdrop, your’re holding a shirt in your lap covered In your own blood. I dare say that I hurt you just a tad more than you did me, wouldn’t you agree?” she grinned and unbuckled her own seatbelt. But ember just shook his head solemnly.

“No, Sister. I scared you and sent you into a real bad panic attack. I tried to hurt you because of a bad nightmare, you, you just got scared of some thunder and jumped in surprise. My face just happened to be in the way. Besides, I ruined your pillow- which I fully intend to pay for and replace!” he said anxiously, his face full of worry. Olivia looked at him softly and rubbed his knee in gentle circles. She wasn’t mad at him after all. His expression softened a bit.

“Yeah, you totally owe me for that pillow,” she smirked, moving her hand higher on his thigh as she turned in her seat to face him. She looked more serious now. “But I do understand how nightmares work, Dewdrop. You didn’t mean any real harm. You were scared and so you were just trying to protect yourself. I mean I’ve done it too,” she laughed shakily at herself. “I mean, why do you think I’m single?”

Ember felt his stomach doing back flips. Her hand was inching slowly further up his thigh and now he was learning she was indeed single. “Y-you’re single?” he asked, attempting to remain nonchalant. 

Olivia giggled, turning around in her seat, opening up the car door and getting out. She pocketed her keys and stretched out her arms over her head.

“Eh heh heh, yeah, you could definitely say that,” she said, not waiting for Ember to get out of the car to reply. He quickly followed her lead however. “I don’t know if you know Brother Lawrence? He’s a tall black senior member?” she looked rather awkward as she spoke. “We used to date, but he um, he dumped me.”

“What why?” Ember could barely contain his newfound excitement, and hoped it wasn’t showing on his face as he tried to remain an air of caring curiosity.

“I told you I have bad nightmares right? I accidentally hit him in my sleep… and kicked him… a few times… all night… for a week straight,” with each pause her voice became smaller and quieter. She waved her hands in front of her trying to dispel the memory. “But it wasn’t my fault though, I swear! I didn’t mean to,” she walked with her head down. “It was just the anniversary of… you know, what I told you about last night?” she snuck a glance over at the fire ghoul who gave her his full attention. She turned a darker shade of red from her embarrassment and shame. “So yeah, I mean I get why he broke up with me, I mean it’s pretty understandable. I thought so anyway, ‘til I learned he had been seeing Sister Jasmine behind my back for a few weeks,” she crossed her arms in front of her abdomen, gripping her elbows. She still wasn’t really looking up from the ground as they walked toward the garage exit. “So, um, yeah…”

Ember wanted to stop her, to take her into his arms, to hold her and tell her that she deserved so much better than a cheating scumbag, and that she was far too good for him anyway, but he felt it might be a bit forward. Besides, her body language was pretty closed off, so he just held onto the shirt with both hands so he didn’t do anything she might think would be untoward. He reached up to scratch at the back of his head, attempting to play it cool.

“Wow, what a fucking douche. And on top of that he cheated on you? That fucking sucks,” he winced at his words. This wasn’t what he wanted to really say, and it made him seem aloof and slightly insensitive, he worried. 

“Yeah, tell me about it. I mean it isn’t like it would have bothered me if he had just said something about wanting to see her on the side, but we never discussed it. I thought we were exclusive, you know? Jokes on me I guess.”

“Haha, yeah, I mean no! No, that’s a real shitty thing to do. I mean I know like part of our doctrine is about free love and being yourself, but we don’t condone cheating. Lying is pretty frowned upon here, and especially from a senior member? That’s just fucked up. Did anything happen to him once it got out?” Ember looked over at Olivia.

“No,” she sighed. “But I do pray he gets horrible and uncontrollable diarrhea everytime they go to fuck,” she grinned, looking up and over to him. She finally cracked and began to cackle. It reverberated from the concrete walls of the garage. Ember couldn’t help himself, her laugh was infectious, and he found himself laughing loudly as well. Secretly, he was already scheming of ways to make her prayers get answered.

Olivia cleared her throat and swiped at her face with the back of her hand, clearing away a few errant tears that had begun to form. “Anyway, so yeah, now you know the majority of my time at the church here. Not too thrilling honestly,” she had begun to walk ahead of Ember and she waved for him to follow with him at her side. The small ghoul obliged, but not before skipping ahead of her to hold open the door for her. The weather here was about the same as it had been at the park when they left. It was clear that it had rained, there were downed limbs from the nearby trees and plenty of leaves scattered about the still wet from rain walkways.

Ember knew their time together was dwindling to a close, but he still didn’t want to go separate ways just yet. At that moment a couple of sisters exited from the side door they were walking together towards. They both eyed up the ghoul from head to toe as if he were a piece of meat. He knew that look meant that were mentally undressing him the rest of the way, eager to know what the bare naked flesh beneath would look like from underneath them.

Olivia was oblivious however, until one of the women whistled at the ghoul as they passed.

“Lookin’ good, Dewdrop!” one of the sisters said, giving him her best naughty smile. Her voice dripped with lustful desire. Ember smiled automatically and held up a signature two-fingered salute to the pair of sisters. He wasn’t exactly sure how they knew it was him in particular because of the glamour, but he decided not to think on it too much as he quickened his pace to get the next door for Olivia.

“You’re pretty popular with the sisters it seems,” she said ducking her head as she walked through the open door Ember held for her. Her heart dropped somewhere to the pits of her stomach. It twisted with jealously, but she hoped it wasn’t showing on her face. She wasn’t ready to have that conversation just yet. After all, they were still just friends. It wasn’t as if he knew she wanted to go and smash her fist into that stupid pretty dark haired sister who just gave Ember her best bedroom eyes. She hated herself in that moment because it went against the Satanic teachings she had spent so long studying and serving. She made a note to go to the confessional later to seek guidance and repentance. 

“Yeah, I mean I’m a band ghoul so it kinda comes along with the territory I guess,” he shrugged. Ask anyone and they would tell you that Ember loved the attention that he received from any and all members of the church. It was one of the reasons he worked so hard with the band in the first place; it was fuel for his ego.

“Uh huh, I’m sure it doesn’t have anything to do with you not wearing a shirt at all, huh?” she strode down the hall way, not particularly caring now if she sounded jealous or not. It still stung that he was clearly more interested in the thin and shapely sisters than her. She felt hot and hollow inside.

Ember looked down to his naked pale chest and stomach. His piercings were glinting in the remainder of the daylight that streamed in through the large glass windows. A blush crept its way across his face. He had forgotten that not everyone walked around half naked (or more) like he did around the ghouls. It was so natural for him he hadn’t even thought about how it would make Olivia feel. Had he made her uncomfortable? Should he have just put the bloody shirt on when he offered to swap shirts with her at the park?

“Sorry,” he muttered quietly.

“What are you apologizing to me for?” she snapped, immediately regretting her tone. 

“I don’t know, I just felt like I should,” he hung his head as his shoulders drooped slightly.

Olivia knew this was her fault, she just didn’t know how to fix it in that moment. She could no longer deny that she had feelings for him. She tried her best for a while now to stomp them out, telling herself they were friends and that it wouldn’t ever go any further than that, no matter how much she hoped otherwise.

_‘He’s a band ghoul, of course he has options,’_ she complained inwardly. _‘Shit, he could probably have his pick of literally anyone in the whole fucking complex. He looked at those two women like he was ready to take them right there in the middle of the goddamn sidewalk. Ugh! SO fucking smooth, Liv. Way to just tell him every little embarrassing detail of your life… he probably just thinks you’re a nutcase and is just taking pity on you…’_ She felt the tears prickling behind her closed eyes as she had stopped walking. She swallowed thickly and didn’t even bother to turn to face the ghoul. She knew if she did she would fully lose whatever was left of her rapidly dissolving resolve.

“Look, i-it’s been a really long day and I’ve got stuff I have to take care of and plus, I’ve kept you out and doing stuff you have to take care of too, so,” she hurried to get it all out before she simply ran away from him. “Um, yeah… See you later,” she quickly darted in the direction of the nearest stairwell. Disappearing before he could even reply.

“See you…” he said quietly, sadly, to himself. His heart felt like it was crumbling. What did he do wrong? What could he have said that had upset her that much? Maybe she really was mad at him for ruining her shirt and she just didn’t want to hurt his feelings? Maybe she was… who even knows. His hands fell to his sides as he huffed out a breath. He then remembered to reach behind him and pull his coiled tail out from where it had been tucked into his sweats waistband all day. It uncoiled itself and stretched out before going limp at his leg. It swayed pathetically, reflecting his sour mood.

Ember sighed deeply as he started down the hallway to go back to his rooms. 

“Fuck,” he mumbled to no one in particular. He had just remembered that he also had to stop by music room number three to collect a probably very stiff and ant-covered t shirt that had been abandoned early in the morning when he had originally run into the sister. He let his eyes fall to the floor at his feet before he turned around and made his way back down the corridor. He hoped beyond hope that no one would bother him on the way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading. It was a real labor of love to get this banged out this week.  
> As always your comments are well appreciated and loved.  
> (You can also find me on tumblr under ljmaystrader , feel free to come yell at me there.)


	9. Rat Bastard

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Cardinal is your friend, whether you like it or not.

Olivia barely had gotten her door closed behind her when the tears erupted. She fell against the door of her apartment and slowly slid down it. Sobbing, she pulled her knees up to her chest best she could and just let go. A thick cloud of sadness, self doubt and loathing swirled around her as she folded her arms on top of her knees, dropping her head onto them. She was no longer able to hold back the flood of emotions. 

_‘How could you be so stupid… did you really think he could ever like someone like you? Look at you, you’re pathetic… worthless, even. You’re nothing compared to the other women here… they’re so much prettier than you… so much more shapely and beautiful with perfect flawless skin and silky hair… not to mention confidant… you’ll never be worth anything…’_

The cloud that devoured her filled her head with lies it’s told her a thousand times before. She was still so weak and susceptible to them, even with the years of therapy and servitude to the church and the countless hours of devout prayer and attempts at self acceptance. She had really thought she was making progress by moving away from her past, but here it was swallowing her whole once more. She wailed into the empty and cold apartment. If only she could run into Papa’s office and fling herself into the old and well worn leather chair in front of his desk. He always knew what to say to calm her and set her back on track.

Papa Emeritus the Second was a notoriously bitter old man with a temper that rivaled even Sister Imperator when things did not go in his favor. But behind the mask he wore, Olivia knew him to have a much softer side, even daring to consider him to be kind-hearted. It was well hidden, buried deep within him, but she knew it was there because she had experienced it. He was nothing but gentle with her when she came running, sobbing, into his offices even if he was busy. He always made time for her and when the papacy had been handed down to his younger brother, and he had retired, he still was sure to always allow her into his chambers for a soothing cup of tea and a shoulder to cry on. He was not the evil monster everyone made him out to be and she knew it. 

She would give anything to have Papa wipe away her tears with the hem of his chasuble; however it would seem she would have to settle for her own t shirt. When she brought it to her face she could still smell the fire ghoul on it. It was faint, but she could make out the spicy scent of anise and cardamom. A fresh wave of tears befell her and she cried out even harder than before. It was all too much and she was beginning to be unable to breathe, she needed to get out. 

Olivia scrambled to her feet and wrenched open the door she previously was leaning against and launched herself out into the hallway. She was vaguely aware the door had closed behind her, but her heartbeat thundered in her ears as she ran in the direction of the only place she knew for a fact would bring her any inkling of solace: the catacombs and crypts.

Meanwhile, in a different wing on another end of the abbey, Ember was approaching music room three. He had passed a handful of siblings of sin carrying various dark hymnals and instruments from choir practices in other music rooms in the hall. He ignored them all, even as they spoke directly to him in passing, as if he hadn’t seen them at all; like they were simply afterthoughts of images somewhere on his peripheral. 

He turned the corner, looking down to the floor for his shirt. It was not where he had remembered leaving it the night before, because it was currently being moved, dragged rather, by a very large and fat rat, who was still in the process of stealing it. He snarled and bent down to yank it away from the vermin and shoo it away. The rat simply stared at him as if this were just an inconvenience for it. He stuck his tongue out at the rat, bending back up, intending to go back to his room in the ghoul’s quarters to get started on laundry when he unexpectedly found himself face to face with the Cardinal. Ember jumped back,, hissing, the shirt falling from his hands as he readied his claws to strike. The ghoul’s tail slashed about angrily at the sudden and unwelcome surprise.

“Calm down little ghoul, it’s only me,” the Cardinal said as if the ghoul weren’t poised to sink his razor sharp claws into his skin. He held his hands clasped behind his back, his posture completely at ease.

“ _Tch_ easy for you to fuckin’ say,” he eased up and retracted his claws. His tail however continued to swish and flick about irritably. Copia chuckled at the small ghoul.

“I heard from a little birdy you were upset, so I came to investigate,” the Cardinal said as he knelt down to scoop up the large brown and white rat in his gloved hands.

“Yeah, right, more like a rat you mean,” Ember watched Copia gently hold out his hand to the rat who ignored him for a second to finish cleaning off its face with a little paw. It then scampered over and into his awaiting palm. The Cardinal gave it a few scritches behind its ears and straightened back up. The rat squeaked and chittered, twitching its whiskers.

“Eh heh, I suppose you got me there,” Copia said, still petting the rat between its ears. “So tell me, what has you so down and out, hm?” he looked up from the rat in his palm to Ember. Copia moved his hand up to his shoulder, where the rat went right along to perch itself in the crook where his neck met his shoulder. It gave him a few nibbles on his skin before settling down to swipe at its whiskers. Copia offered a warm smile, even as he reached up to give the rat a gentle pat.

“Since your rats seem to know so much, why don’t you just ask them?” Ember snarled as he snatched up his shirt from the floor once more. He balled it up with the sister’s bloodied one  
“Don’t be like that, Ember. You know you can always talk to your friend Cardi,” he beamed as he opened his arms up with a dramatic flourish. It reminded Ember of Papa III, but he only grunted at the memory and brushed passed the Cardinal. He wasn’t in the mood for this shit.

“You wanna get touchy feely, go play with your rats, Copia,” he retorted.

The Cardinal huffed out a sigh. “I see. Well, have it your way then little ghoul. I suppose I could just go ask the lovely Sister Olivia then, yes?” his voice was light and airy; the kind that you knew automatically came with a smirk and a hint of devilish mischief. The Cardinal cast a sidelong glance at Ember before he took a tentative step in the direction away from the ghoul. He could tell he had struck a nerve because he felt the air around him shift and become heavier and hotter. The smirk spread across his face.

“Oh for fucks sake, Copia. Fine, you win. What do you want?” Ember conceded and whirled around to face him. 

“Ember, dear fire ghoul, I know I am not your beloved Papa III, and we don’t always see eye to eye with each other, but I really do want you to know that if something is bothering you, you can always come to me,” again with the hand flourish, “your friend, Cardi.”

Ember rolled his eyes so hard he thought they would continue to roll right out of their sockets. He wasn’t quite sure what this new shtick of the Cardinal’s was, but he was sure however, that he didn’t much care for it. “Look,” he began. “If you want to talk to someone, you don’t first sneak up on them, taunt them with shit, and then act like you’re just concerned with their well being. You just ask to talk- genuinely!” 

“I see,” Copia furrowed his brow, and then he hit his fist onto his open hand. “Aha! How about you come into the music room with me then, eh? I show you what I’ve been working on, no?” 

Ember hiked up an eyebrow at him. The Cardinal’s stupid Italian accent was beginning to grate on his last nerve.

“How about… No. If you haven’t noticed, I was actually in the middle of something when you just popped up, so if you wanna talk, how about you come with me instead?”

“Eh heh, some other time then with the music. Okie Dokie, lead the way Dewdrop!” Copia called out, smiling. Ember groaned, rolled his eyes, and set a course back to his dorms. He somehow managed to avoid small talk with the Cardinal on the way, which was rather odd seeing as how the front man wanted to talk to the ghoul. It seemed rather odd indeed and made Ember slightly uncomfortable, but he chose to push the thoughts away. Copia was just mysterious and weird like that, he supposed. What he didn’t see however was the murmurs being passed on to the chunky rat perched atop his shoulder.

It was very true, Copia was no Emeritus brother. The Cardinals predecessor, Papa III, was very charismatic both on and off the stage, and to compare the two, it would be no better to compare a rat to a panther. The Cardinal rose to the position on the heels of Papa Emeritus III’s untimely demise. There was still much speculation about the entire ordeal, but with the haze of mourning, very few questioned the decision of Papa Nihil, and so Cardinal Copia was thrust into the leading role of the church, even without having the title of ‘Papa’. He was of course, the senior most member of the clergy, aside from Sister Imperator and Nihil, himself, so it was only the natural line of succession.

It was not quite official of course; Papa Nihil was still the head of the church on paper, however many were very relieved when Copia took over the weekly black mass (only to realize too late that Nihil had been by and large the better option, even if he was old and got sidetracked easily). Then the announcement came that he was to herald the Ghost Project into the next stage. This was apparently the tipping point amongst the decent between the clergy. Many felt he was far too inexperienced to front the band, while others exclaimed there was no possible way he could lead without first becoming Papa. The congregation on the other hand was rather perplexed by the whole situation, but it was generally agreed upon that the Project was now doomed.

The ghouls of course had very little say in the matter, but were granted the freedom of choice to remain as members or find a new job to occupy them. Some who had followed under the First, Second, and Third Emeritus’ were so appalled by the lack of leadership and experience from Cardinal Copia, they simply chose to return to the pits of Hell. Many a sister and brother shed tears over those who chose to leave.

Ember was not among those who mourned the loss, however. He understood full well that with the Alpha ghoul as well as Ifrit out of the way, he would obviously be the prime choice in the succession of the lead guitarist spot in the band. Plus, he already held experience with the band and was used to the travelling and touring. He was practically a shoe in!

But fucking Copia… he just had to make a fucking show of things. He still requested Ember to ‘audition’ for the slot as if Copia decided on who made the final cut himself. The fool. Everyone knew that the mysterious Director and his personal assistant the Special ghoul would hand pick whomever they wanted in the end. Copia however insisted on the display of formalities- the illusion of choice or chance.

Together, the pair made it outside the ghoul’s chambers and Ember was very ready to be done with the day; Copia included. He thrust his free hand into his pocket to fish out his keys. Strange, he was sure that he had left them in his right pocket. Ember shifted the dirty shirts to the other arm and began frantically searching his left pocket. His keys were not there either. He rolled his eyes before clenching them shut tightly and hissing out a curse in his native tongue.

Copia shifted his weight back and forth from foot to foot as if he were afraid to ask the ghoul if everything were alright because clearly he could see that everything was indeed not alright. He stared intently at the locked door to avoid catching the fire ghoul’s eye. Ember pounded his fist onto the wooden surface, causing the Cardinal to jump slightly.

“It would appear that I am truly being tested today by the Dark Master Below,” he glared over to Copia with a very wicked and malicious grin. “First, I cause the lovely sister, the object of my unrequited attention, a severe panic attack. Then, I get to meet her ex and want to rip his face off, but I didn’t, I held it together. Then, it starts to fucking downpour and we get drenched along with our food. After that I get head butted in the face and bled like hell all over said sister. Next, we come back here and she makes me feel like the fucking biggest asshole in the entire clergy and that she doesn’t want to be around me to the point of actually and literally running away from me,” he growled angrily. “On top of being carsick for the majority of the day today, after all of that bullshit, I now learn that I have left my fucking keys behind in said sister’s dorm,” he pounded his fist against the locked door once more, hanging his head before leaning into his arm. “I just,” he sighed. His breath was shaky and sounded like it was on the verge of breaking. “I just fucking can’t catch a break today,” he sucked in a breath before exhaling it in a gruff laugh. A single hot tear rolled down his cheek.

Copia couldn’t help but thinking this was the saddest he had ever seen any of the ghouls in recent memory (aside from the obvious passing of Papa III). It broke his heart to see his ghoul so hurt. Ember shook with waves of silent angry tears now. Copia reached out to gingerly touch the fire ghoul on his shoulder. Ember shrugged him off irritably. He flicked his eyes over to the freckled man, almost as if to dare him to try to touch him again.

Luckily, Copia was a very stubborn man. He reached into his vestments and pulled out an embroidered handkerchief and cautiously handed it out to the ghoul. “Here, use this,” he said along with the offering. He knew full well that Ember would rather die before ever asking for help in any manner, even something as simple as a tissue or in this case, a comforting touch. 

Ember looked at the hankie and then back up to meet Copia’s mismatched eyes. There was no malice to be found in them. He accepted the delicate fabric square and swiped at his face before offering it back. He wasn’t sure of the proper etiquette regarding handkerchiefs, if he was supposed to hang on to it or just give it back, but he would certainly rather give it back than to be caught with such an atrocious thing in his possession. It even had a delicate lace border for Lucifer’s sake! The other ghouls would have a field day if they saw him with it.

Copia took it from the ghoul and placed it back wherever it had come from, then reached out to grip Ember’s shoulder once again. To his surprise, the fire ghoul didn’t pull away from his touch. The Cardinal gently dug his fingertips into Ember’s flesh in a slight squeeze. Shockingly, Ember moved to put his hand on the Cardinal’s shoulder now as well. A slow, warm smile spread across the freckled mans lips as he pulled the ghoul in for an easy one armed hug. Copia thought that it would be brief and went to let go when Ember pulled him in just a bit tighter and clapped his back a few times. Ember straightened up, cleared his throat and swiped his hand over his face again to try to remove any trace of any remaining unseemly emotions he had just displayed. He coughed and turned his back to the Cardinal.

“Do not fret, my ghoul, everything will be alright, you’ll see,” he spoke in a very careful and calm manner to Ember. Then he turned his head and addressed the rat still perched atop his shoulder, whispering something Ember couldn’t quite make out. Instead, he growled lowly and muttered something that sounded vaguely like Ghoulish to Copia’s ears.

“Eh, I’m afraid my Ghoulish is a tad rusty, sorry,” he replied, scratching behind his right ear. “Perhaps if you might indulge me in a language I am more familiar with instead? Latin or English? Even Swedish?”

“I said,” Ember glared over his shoulder before turning to face him. Their height difference was noticeable, but nevertheless it didn’t stop Ember from glaring at the man before him. “How in the hell is any of this alright?” he hissed. Ember’s face was still a bit splotchy. Copia was unperturbed by the very obviously pissed off ghoul, opting to smile warmly again at him.

“I know it may seem difficult for you to believe or even trust in my words,” Ember scoffed at the Cardinal when he said the word ‘trust’, “ but perhaps things are not quite how they appear, yes?”

“As per usual, nothing you say makes any damn sense, Copia,” Ember rolled his eyes and sighed in frustration. He squared his shoulders and began to stride down the hallway towards another ghoul’s quarters. “I guess I’ll just see if Rain or Swiss can pick the lock for me again,” he said more so to himself. Copia’s ears perked up.

“Again?!” he said rather alarmed. 

Ember shrugged. “Yeah, I locked myself out a while back and apparently they’ve been up to learning a few new tricks, including being even sneakier little shits.”

Copia rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Well, that explains a few things…” he mused before jogging a few steps to fall in line behind the fire ghoul. “So where exactly are you going to now?”

“Copia, weren’t you listening? I just told you, I was going to go find Rain or Swiss to pick my lock,” he spoke deliberately and even made wildly exaggerated hand motions to accompany his plans.

“Yes, I was listening to you, I just think that you should go and get your keys instead of having to go and get someone else involved any time you go to lock your door.”

Ember stopped in his tracks and wheeled on the taller man, his tail was angrily thrashing this way and that. “Copia, I already told you, she doesn’t want to see me. She literally ran away from me, and couldn’t get away fast-“

“Did she actually say anything like that though?” the Cardinal cut him off. Ember flicked his tongue out, licking his lips.

“Yeah, I just said tha-“

“You simply said she ‘ran away’, but did she expressly say any of those words to you? She told you ‘I do not want to be near you’?” he crossed his arms and shifted his weight to the other foot, cocking his hip out. “Because Dewdrop, I feel you may have misread the situation,” though he had crossed his arms he still couldn’t help but to talk with his hands. This must be an Italian thing, Ember thought to himself as he recalled the previous Papas doing the same thing.

“Cardinal, please,” he said exasperatedly with a deep sigh. “If you know something I don’t then please share it, otherwise you’re wasting not only your time but mine as well. I’m nowhere near in the mood for more cryptic bullshit!” he snapped. 

Copia’s eyes darkened slightly, his lips pressing to a thin line. “I see,” he said briskly and clasped his hands tightly behind his back. “Allow me, to be clearer then, ghoul, seeing as you seem to be forgetting to whom you speak.”

“I know full well who the hell I’m talking to- a fucking rat! A rat with little to actually say and more riddles than fucking answers!” Ember’s eyes flared like molten lava. He had had enough and didn’t care that he was yelling in Copia’s face. He was beyond his melting point. “You say you want to talk, then you stay completely silent. I am literally having the worst day in recent memory and you are absolutely no fucking help at all! I’m starting to think you just enjoy seeing people at their worst,” he continued, smoke flowing in thin tendrils from his nostrils. 

Cardinal Copia narrowed his eyes, tilted his head back so he could peer down his nose at the furious little fire ghoul. “I am simply asking you to think with that incredibly dummy thick head of yours. I’ve not asked a single question you couldn’t answer if you weren’t so focused on your own blindingly idiotic self,” he sighed and ran his hand through his hair, smoothing it back. “Honestly, the answer is so obvious it’s almost painful to watch you flounder like this.”

“What the hell are you even talking about?!” Ember roared. He no longer cared that he was shouting at the proxy leader of the clergy and his band director. He felt as if his very skin was on fire from the restraint he was showing by not shredding the man before him with his razor sharp claws. He gestured wildly, flinging his arms about. “Well?! I don’t see you explaining a single goddamn thing!”

Copia sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. It was as if this were sincerely painful for him to put up with. “Dewdrop, honestly, all this trouble for one measly human? If she is that important to you, then _go to her_. Otherwise you are the most ignorant ghoul I have ever come across in all my years,” he turned on his heel, his hands still clasped together. “As it is, you’re just running away-“

“I am _not_ running away!” he yelled. His voice was growing distorted as his control over his glamour began to fail. Copia sneered at him over his shoulder. He placed a hand on a cocked out hip, then spun on the ball of his foot to look directly at the ghoul. Ember’s chest was heaving with a rage that was scarcely being contained. 

“Tell me then, ghoul,” the last word drawn out with an almost sing-song drawl. “If you aren’t running away from your troubles, then you should have absolutely no difficulty marching away from here right now and going and collecting your keys, no?” he grinned broadly. Ember grunted in response, small sparks flitting from his nose as he did so. “Ah, so you are a coward then who can’t even deal with one human,” the Cardinal _tsk_ ed him and shook his head. He shrugged and turned his back to him once more, his cassock billowed out with finesse. He wiggled his fingers in the air as if he were waving a mere servant away.

Behind him, Ember snarled. It was low, deep in his chest, and it was fueled by a fury the likes of which he hadn’t felt since before his summoning. Copia could tell he struck a nerve with the ghoul, as he could feel the burst of sweltering heat emanating from behind him. A sly grin splayed across his painted upper lip.

Ember balled up the dirty shirts and threw them as hard as he could at the back of the Cardinal’s head. He misjudged in his anger, but managed to knock off the biretta at least. The Cardinal stooped down to pick up his hat and the dirty shirts to deposit at the ghoul’s door. Ember stormed by him, cursing and muttering to himself, but loud enough the Cardinal could just make out what he was saying.

“… fuckin’ show you, you old rat bastard ass son of a bitch…” Ember’s tail trashed about madly.

Copia smirked to himself, suppressing a chuckle. “That’s more like the Ember I know. Show me what you’re made of,” he murmured to himself. The rat that still perched on his shoulder squeaked. The Cardinal’s expression turned to one of amusement. “Yes, I know he’s stubborn. I think…” he paused for a moment to think. “Yes, I think that is what I like most about him. He’s rather determined though, don’t you agree?” the rat nibbled at Copia’s neck, chittering. “Now now, don’t be rude. It isn’t his fault, sometimes people just need a small, eh, how do you say… push?” he continued on the conversation with the rat companion as they made their way back down the hallway at a leisurely pace.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! As always comments are very welcome and appreciated.Thank you for sticking with me through this, having time to write and sit down and type it up is few and far between now, but be assured it's coming along nicely.  
> Come yell at me on tumblr @ ljmaystrader


	10. Key Retrieval

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ember returns to Sister Olivia's quarters to retrieve his keys.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys, thank you for being so patient with me and with this story. I have been working on it and believe it or not the story itself is actually finished! I just really really suck at time management and getting back to my office to type it up; that, and my chair is very uncomfortable to sit for long periods of time.
> 
> Either way, thank you for your continued support and patience with me. Without further ado, welcome back to Ember's Nightmare!

Ember stomped the entire way back down the corridors, curling and flexing his fists over and over. He snarled angrily to himself, muttering nonsense about Copia and his rats. The siblings of sin he passed bent over backwards and jumped out of the way of the heated fire ghoul’s path. He glared at them all, baring his teeth only to the other ghouls who tried to approach him. They ducked their heads, tucking their tails behind them in submission. Ember was not a very big or menacing looking ghoul by any means, but he had a known reputation to uphold amongst them for being the fieriest and most ill tempered. Today, he wanted to cement that to their memory (even if most of the time it was a farce).

He didn’t have time for their or anyone else’s bullshit right now; he was a ghoul on a mission to retrieve his stupid keys from a stupid human’s dorms. He would bring them back and throw them in Copia’s big, stupid, ugly and wrinkly face. Or shove them straight up his ass, whichever he felt would benefit his mood at the moment.

He climbed the old wooden staircase leading above the main library two steps at a time. He almost succumbed to the temptation to drop to all fours and mount the stairs that way, but he didn’t want to look that wild or feral just yet. He would save that for Copia when he returned triumphantly.

A sister of sin stepped out of the room nearest the stairs just as Ember reached the landing. She took one look at the ghoul now turned and prowling in her direction, opened the door she had just closed and went right back inside, hurriedly locking it, deciding that whatever she needed to go and do, it could wait.

Ember clawed his hair out of his face and slung it over his shoulder. He trembled slightly as he neared closer to Sister Olivia’s door. His inner emotions seemed to suddenly want to rebel against his less rational anger. This could be a huge mistake, barging in on her like this. Then she would really have a reason for not wanting to be near him. He closed his eyes and tried to force his body and mind to calm itself before they reached the middle of the hallway where Olivia lived.

“Ok,” he jumped up and down a few times to shake the nerves out. “We’ll make this quick and easy. Just say you left your keys- go get them and then boom! You’re done! Easy as pie, in and out,” he rambled to himself in a pep talk. “Won’t even have to see her for what? Like 30 seconds tops? If that?” he cracked his knuckles as if preparing for a brawl, then shook them out to loosen up. Anxiously he crossed the last few steps to Olivia’s door. Ember exhaled in a rush and then sucked in a deep breath between his teeth, holding it as he reached up with his fist to pound on the door. He exhaled like a deflated balloon and spun around, clenching his face up and bringing his arms up claws first.

He silently let out a scream before turning back around and coughing, shaking his head out. “You can do this, Dew. You’ve faced many women’s scorn before, you got this,” he bounced a few times on his feet to force out any remaining nerves. “You’ve been turned down before, it’s no big deal; just your friend you’ve been pining away for for months and then you totally fucking blew it, but yeah, no biggie. You can do this,” he opened his eyes and knocked on the door before he could stop himself again.

The sound seemed to surprise him and he could feel his gut twisting itself in knots waiting for her to come answer the door. He hoped it wasn’t too loud or angry sounding, or needy, or urgent… He chewed on his lip, peeling the dry skin away with his teeth. Pain would ground him, even if it was self inflicted. His tail swished anxiously behind him. What was taking her so long? He shifted his weight from one foot to the other and back nervously. Should he knock again? Would it seem too desperate?

But wasn’t he desperate though? Desperate to know he hadn’t really fucked up and the Cardinal was right and this was all a big misunderstanding? Desperate to prove the Cardinal wrong and throw the fucking keys in his stupid smarmy face? 

Why the hell was she taking so long to answer the goddamn door?

He held up his fist to knock again when he noticed why people were so adamant to get the fuck out of his way earlier. He stared at his blackened fist, relaxing it and turning it over. 

‘ _Oh shit,_ ’ his eyes widened as he examined his flesh with the cracks and opalescent reds and crimsons peeking through. He reached a tentative hand up to his head to see just how much of the glamour had failed him and broke. There were no horns to be found. He dragged his fingertips down his face and to his mouth, not quite fangs, but definitely sharp and pointy teeth. And obviously his tail was still out and swishing its way back and forth still, so there was that. ‘ _Fuck._ ’

He tossed his head back and blew out another breath. “It’s fine, it’s going to be fine, you are fine,” he quietly said to himself. He steeled his resolve once more and brought his hand up to rap on the solid wood with his knuckles. Ember needed to be calmer in order to replace the glamour. He under no uncertain circumstances wanted Olivia to see him like that unexpectedly ever again. He held up his hand in front of his face and watched the iridescent flickering wave roll over his skin, covering the black with a pale human toned flesh. The claws retracted to more acceptable rounded edges at the tips of more human presenting digits. 

Olivia had yet to answer the door. He sniffed the air tentatively. He could still smell a faint trace of her mixed with rain so he knew that she had to have come up here after they had returned to the abbey. He bunched his eyebrows together and knocked a little more loudly and with slight more urgency. Very much what he wanted to avoid doing the first time. He waited now impatiently, even going so far as to press an ear to the wooden door. He could hear the gentle humming of the overhead ceiling fan and if he closed his eyes and listened intently, he picked up the sounds of… nothing else. The room was eerily silent from the other side of the door.

The fire ghoul retracted himself from the wooden surface, looking worried. He could knock again, but it only seemed pointless now. He knew she was either avoiding him very, very cleverly or she wasn’t even there. He didn’t want to give up and run the risk of running into that smarmy fuck Copia empty-handed.

Just the mere thought alone of the sneer on his rat-bastard face was enough for Ember’s blood pressure to skyrocket. ‘ _No,_ ’ he thought. ‘ _I need to stay calm for her sake_ ’ He truthfully didn’t want to lose control again; the slip up with the glamour was more than enough. He didn’t want to be that person again. He tried desperately not to be that person since he was summoned topside. He worked so hard to start over and get this far and he didn’t want Olivia to ever see him like that ever again. Not like he was in anger and torment. 

He scowled at the still closed door that had yet to be answered. As a last ditch effort her prepared himself to try the handle to just see what she would do if it rattled. Surely if she had the resolve to ignore him, she could just come and yell at him to fuck off through the door. He bit down on his lip and twisted the knob, expecting resistance. Ember was thoroughly caught off guard by this and couldn’t gather his wits about him quickly enough to not crash through the now opened doorway. The ghoul fell face first into the darkness of the livingroom. 

Ember cursed under his breath, pushing himself up onto his knees. He shook his head a bit to gain his senses back before remembering why he was in here in the first place. Getting to his feet he took a quick look around the empty room. There were no signs of anything being moved or even touched since he was last in there this afternoon. Cautiously he decided to investigate the Sister’s bedroom, if for nothing else to locate his keys. 

The ghoul took a few timid steps into the apartment, ducking his head around the corner as if he were slightly afraid she would be waiting for him with something large and heavy to bash him over the head. Nothing was there however, to his relief. The bedroom door, however gave him pause because it was left open. The ceiling fan was languidly rotating causing some of the pillow remnants to blow in the light wind. Still, there was no Sister Olivia.   
Ember made his way around the bed and looked down to the bedside table where he thought he remembered depositing his keys last night when they went to bed together. No such luck it would seem for the fire ghoul. ‘ _Maybe they fell or something_ ’ he thought to himself as he lowered his body to the floor. There, just beneath the loose flat sheet he saw the tale-tell blue-grey plushie shark keychain Rain had gotten him when they went to an aquarium. ‘ _Aha! Gotcha!_ ’ he smiled broadly at himself.

Now to solve the second piece of the puzzle: where was Sister Olivia?

He hopped back up to his feet, shoving the keys immediately into his pocket. His nose was in the air again, sniffing for hints of the lovely Olivia. Obviously this room smelt like her, it was her bedroom after all. But it held no trace of rain, so Ember closed his eyes and let his nose guide him. He wasn’t as good at tracking as Mountain was, perhaps he might be up for a challenge. Ember walked out back into the livingroom where the smell of rain was stronger. He sniffed towards the kitchen, only to smell the coffee that had gone relatively untouched last night. It was still on the table where they both left their respective mugs.

Turning back towards the livingroom he took a few small steps towards the sofa, bending down to inhale close to the couch cushions. The rain hadn’t touched here, just Olivia. He lingered perhaps a bit longer than would be normally acceptable, but since he was alone he didn’t think that anyone would mind, or find out for that matter. He straightened back up and went back to the door. It was the only place he could smell that the rain had lingered. It was as if she ran upstairs and then went right back out. But why would she do that? Ember hated to admit that he needed help, but he was at a loss. He tapped his pocket just to make absolutely sure he still had his keys before opening up the door and stepping back out into the hallway.

There was a slight chill to the hallway now and he was quickly reminded that he was sans shirt when the cool air hit his nipples making them pucker and harden. He ducked back inside and grabbed the first thing he saw to cover himself up. It was the blanket from the back of the sofa. It was soft and plush, with half of it being red and the other half white with a round circle of white and red with a black band through it. Ember thought it looked rather dumb, but it would work for what he needed it for, so he threw it around his shoulders and walked back out the door.

He lost himself in thought wondering if Mountain would be available to help him find Olivia. On the other hand, what if she didn’t want to be found and really was avoiding him? But why would she leave so suddenly that she didn’t even bother to lock her door? It wasn’t like there was a huge problem with theft amongst the siblings of sin or anything (the ghouls were a totally different story however, save for the ghoulettes). But still, it was odd that anyone would willingly leave their door unlocked it was just too much of a habit for everyone to lock it… His mind raced with ‘what ifs’ to the point he never saw the sister from earlier leaving her room again.   
Ember ran smack into her as she pulled her own key from her door. He reached out to steady the woman who wheeled around, cursing at him before she had the chance to recognize the ghoul.

“You!” she squealed, bringing her hand to cover her heavily blushing face. “I-I’m so sorry!” She was surprised to see him again so soon, but was glad that he seemed in a better mood. Upon realizing what the ghoul was ‘wearing’ she pulled her hand away and pointed at the blanket draped around his shoulders. “Um, Dewdrop? Why the hell are you wearing Olivia’s pokemon blanket?” she asked, puzzled.

“It… it’s a long story. Speaking of Olivia though, have you seen her?” Ember tried to look nonchalant as he spoke.

“You are wearing her favourite blanket like a fucking poncho, but you don’t know where she is?” she arched her eyebrow at him crossing her arms and cocking her hip out.

“Look, just tell me if you’ve seen her or not,” Ember huffed. This was easily the most embarrassing thing of the day so far and that was including being scared by the Cardinal earlier.

The sister shook her head, yet remained posed with an accusatory look on her face.

“Ah fuck... Ok then. Well if you see her before I do will you let her know I’m looking for her?” he pulled the blanket tighter around himself, feeling a slight pang of misplaced guilt.

“Uh yeah, sure, I guess,” the woman shrugged.

“Thanks… um…” Ember recognized her face from seeing her around, but he had no idea what her name was at all. There were far too many humans for him to even remotely care about learning all their names. It was nowhere near a top priority for him.

“Mhm,” the woman hummed, yet did not offer her name as she gave a tight smile, spinning around to walk down the hallway towards the nearest staircase. Maybe she worked in the library or something and that’s where he recognized her from. But his was no time to lose focus. He needed to find Olivia and apologize. At least he felt he needed to, but he wasn’t’ sure yet of what exactly he had done that he needed to apologize for.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for keeping up with me and reading this chapter. Your support and patience mean a great deal to me. Let me know what you think by leaving a comment, or coming and yelling at me on tumblr @ ljmaystrader.


	11. Choose your words carefully

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our smol fire ghoul follows the scent trail of the lovely Sister Olivia, but gets way more than he bargained for with a fat brown and white rat, Octavius.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Fun fact, I was pretty oblivious when naming things and people and most have names starting with 'O'.)

Ember shrugged and turned back towards the way he came. He perked his head up, scenting the air to try and pick up a trail of the Sister, but there was something else clogging up his nose entirely. _Not this way._ He scrunched up his face and closed his eyes to try and have a better time at picking out her distinct scent.He let his nose lead his way for a few seconds, pushing out every other thing from his mind. _There!_ It was fading and light, so she hadn’t lingered here like she did in her doorway. She must have hurried off to somewhere. Once he was sure of the direction, he hurled himself down the hallway and over the banister of the staircase at the opposite end that he had ascended from, trailing the smell. 

He landed gracefully on the main floor of the north wing. Standing up straight, he closed his eyes, tilting his head back. He envisioned the scent of Olivia as a misty effervescent trail of soft light that would lead him to her. He had so successfully cut off the rest of his senses that he never felt or noticed that he was no longer alone in the hallway. When he opened his eyes with a rather determined gleam in them, his expression faltered as he found himself face to face with two black beady eyes. He screamed and swatted at it, but Cardinal Copia had pulled back the fat brown and white rat just in time. The rat squeaked in protest, trying to escape Copia’s grasp to fling himself at the ghoul.

“Goddamnit ,Copia! Why the fuck do you keep doing that?!” Ember roared. Copia smiled a small crooked smile, gently petting the rat on the back of its little head. It appeared as if the ghoul had said nothing at all to the man for as calm and collected as he was, focusing solely on petting the small creature in his hand. Then, as if noticing Ember standing before him suddenly, he looked up and appeared taken aback slightly.

“Ah! My dear fire ghoul! How unexpected. Octavius was hoping to run into you again!” the Cardinal said gleefully, holding up the rat.

“Who?” the ghoul asked, annoyed at the man before him.

“The rat, Ember,” Copia sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. He furrowed his brows then placed the rat back on his shoulder to perch.”Honestly…” he muttered under his breath before turning his attention to the ghoul before him again. “I thought you would be happy to see him-“

“And why, for Lucifer’s sake, would that be?” Ember was exasperated at this point and was beyond losing his cool with the Cardinal. He needed to go to Olivia, not stand around chit-chatting with the fucking rat man.

“Well for starters, he has informed me that he has information about your lost little Sister.”

“She isn’t lost.” he snapped, choosing to ignore the fact that Copia had just admitted to conversing with rodents. Surely that would be a conversation for another day, and one that he wouldn’t ever want to actually have with the crazy bastard.

“And you are tracking her… why then? I know what a ghoul on a hunt looks like, Dewy.” Copia reached out to pat the small ghoul on his head, but Ember snapped his teeth at him and batted his hand away. Copia chucked.

“Don’t fucking call me that! And I’m not-“ Ember growled in frustration. “Look. I’m busy, ok? Don’t you have something else to go do instead of harassing me with a stupid rat?” The ghoul shouldered past the taller man, bumping against him.

“I was only trying to help, Ember.” Copia said softly, with a twinge of something reminiscent of guilt on his tongue. The fire ghoul wasn’t even sure Copia knew the meaning of the word. Copia looked on for a few beats as Ember stomped away from him. “Octavius has told me where your lost Sister is hiding out. Wouldn’t you like to hear me out instead of wasting your time chasing after your own tail?”

Ember whirled around, glaring at the Cardinal, who continued to stroke at the rat as if nothing else in the entire church mattered at that particular moment. The look of disinterest painted across his features made Ember’s blood rush through his body with a fiery fury.

“You fuckin’ know what’s a waste of time, _Cardinal_? You. Running into you and your pathetic ass rat,” the Cardinal looked as if he were about to interrupt and protest when Ember continued on, his voice raising. “You could have just told me from the get-go, but no. You chose to play around and fuck with me, telling me that the fucking _rat_ has information! I am done with your mind games, your stupid rats, all of it! If you know something…” Ember started, then something struck him like a blow to the gut. The colour drained from his face as his eyes flickered with sparks of unbridled rage.

The ghoul lashed out, seizing Copia by his collar and yanking him forwards so they were eye to eye. His breath was hot on the Cardinals face and smelled of smoke and brimstone. Ember appeared surprisingly calm and collected and for a split second Cardinal Copia forgot who he was and felt something akin to fear. He swallowed abruptly, forcing the stray feeling down his throat, meeting Embers intense gaze.

“You knew the whole time.” Ember’s voice didn’t waiver as he spoke the words. “What did you do?”

“Wh-what?” Copia laughed incredulously. “ Just what are you trying to say, ghoul?” Copia questioned. He was capable of many, many things that none of the entire clergy knew, but that didn’t mean that he would ever willingly hurt or bring harm to any of the devout believers of the church without due cause. He didn’t enjoy at all what the fire ghoul was implying. Not one bit.

Ember was now nose to nose with the man. Unblinking. Unwaivering in the slightest. “I said, what did you do to her?” His voice was low and dangerous. His rage was getting the best of him and he was completely incapable of thinking clearly or rationally. If only he would think back, he would know full well that there was no possible way that the Cardinal would have known anything at all, but here and now, it simply did not matter. Ember was beyond all rational thought processes. The feral tendencies and upbringing in the fire pits with the rest of his clan were at the forefront and running the show for him.

“If I were you, ghoul, I would think carefully and choose your next words very wisely,” Copia spoke with a low and even tone. He reached up, clasping Ember’s wrist in a vice-like grip, tugging it away from the neck of his vestments. “I have not seen Sister Olivia. I have no reason to lie, especially to a servant of the clergy such as yourself. Once more you seem to forget your station, fire ghoul. Do not forget you are indeed replaceable, lest you have already forgotten your elder brethren.” His white eye shone and sparkled with an iridescent flickering. “I am wounded to think that you would even think I am capable of… of,” he gestured wildly in front of him, before settling his hand against his chest. A mock expression of hurt pride across his face.

Ember snarled, his teeth bared, but he reluctantly backed down from the church leader. His tail lashed about as if lost in its own little whirlwind fury. He lowered his gaze in submission, yet continued to ball up his fists.

“Forgive me, Cardinal,” he spat the words more than spoke them. “I’m out of line.”

“All is forgiven in the eyes of Satan,” Copia adjusted his red berretta. The fat rat, Octavius chittered around Copia’s tawny chestnut hair and skittered to the other side of his neck. “Now, would you like to know where your darling little Sister of Sin has wondered off to, or would you like to continue a pointless line of questioning that would see you back to the pits, hm?”

The muscles of Ember’s jaw clenched so tightly it was nearly painful to look at. His eyes flicked upwards to meet Copia’s but he found himself unable to quite match the intensity of the mis-matched eyes of the Cardinal. He knew he would be unable to hold his tongue if he spoke up, so he simply nodded stiffly.

Copia narrowed his eyes for a split second before grinning and speaking under his breath “Yes, that’s more like it.” The corner of his mouth twisted up into a rather unpleasant smile as he took in the look of defeat on the fire ghoul. He cleared his throat, straightened himself up to full height so he could look down his nose at him. “You will find her in the crypts.” Copia looked rather pleased with himself as he clasped his hands behind his back, still peering down at Ember.

Ember swallowed the insult that sat bitterly on the tip of his tongue, bowing his head in reverence. “Thank you, your Eminence.”

With that, he turned around and walked, no, stalked his way down the corridor to the nearest exit so he could put as much distance as quickly as possible between himself and the Cardinal. He still continued to clench and tighten his jaw. Once he was cleared of the door and away from the judging gaze of any one nearby, he considered shifting to the point of running through the grounds on all fours, but the more rational side of his brain finally grasped any form of control over him.

No. He was not the feral ghoul anymore who wandered the pits of hell. He was not the angry and wild beast that the clergy thought he was. He worked so hard to be better, and now with just a few seconds of losing his cool all that he had worked so hard to attain for himself was in peril of being taken away from him at the snap of some disgusting human’s fingers? No, not fucking today.

Cardinal Copia meanwhile huffed out a breath of air he had been holding in since the ghoul turned his back. He looked disdainfully at the brown and white rat perched on his shoulder once more. “You know, I don’t think I will ever be capable of understanding ghouls, Octavius. I really don’t,” he wiggled a finger at the rat. “Now you, on the other hand, I can at least understand you, you cute little rattie. How about a snack?”

-=*=-

Ember stalked around the grounds making his way towards the crypts. The main building of the libraries behind him, he began sprinting down over the grounds to the vaults of the late Emeritus brothers. The church was vast in years and parishioners, as such, there was a need for a graveyard and crypts for the revered deceased members of the clergy. The graveyard, as with all the grounds within the abbey was very well maintained; however very special attention was given to the headstones and other decorative memorials and sculptures. They were as well cared for as the statues found within the gardens and front lawns of the monastery. He passed several grounds keepers as they were finishing up their duties for the evening on his way to the entrance to the underground crypts. 

The entrance facade was constructed out of white limestone with beautiful ornate archways and strong carved pillars that have weathered slightly over time. The massive wooden doors were covered with beautiful ironwork and intricate carvings. On one side a crowned skeletal figure, somewhere in a later stage of decomposition, wielded a large scythe in one hand with the other extended, pointing to the panel carved into the opposing door. Opposite, another skeletal figure, this one hooded and blindfolded, pointed back with a nimble boned finger, gracefully holding a rather large scepter in the other hand. There was no crown adorning its cloaked skull. 

Ember approached cautiously as he had never ventured down this way before, even with the passing of his former Papa. It had hurt too much when he had received the notice that the former leader of the church had been declared dead. That almost _all_ of the former leaders of the church and Ghost Project had been declared dead. The official statement was that there had been a particularly bad gas leak in the room that all three Emeritus brothers just so happened to be meeting for their monthly poker night; though, according to some rumors they had actually been found to be playing the card game called UNO. Either way, Ember glanced around to make sure no one else saw him slink into the building unaccompanied at dusk, when official visiting hours were over.

The inside was just as lavish as the ghoul assumed it would be based on the outward appearance. Everything looked ornate and uselessly expensive. It was all bronze, silver, gilded, marble, or covered with precious or semi-precious stones. The only things that looked remotely normal or functional, and wouldn’t break if you looked too hard or breathed in its direction wrong were the benches. Ember took as much time as he could to not knock anything over as he got his bearings. He closed his eyes and once more envisioned Olivia’s mist-like scent trail winding through the large room. 

On the far right-hand side there was a plain looking wooden door slightly ajar. Ember thought it looked out of place, but now that he was actually looking at it, he could see how it was easily over-looked compared to the rest of the space around it. The great details surrounding it easily moved your eyes away from the door. He padded towards it. The square black and white marble tiles were cold to his bare feet. He looked down, slightly confused to see the pale skin of his glamoured feet. When the hell did he lose his shoes? 

He slipped inside the open door and was greeted by a rather striking dimly lit hallway. It was very different than the room he was just in. It was bland comparatively. White limestone walls laid out with bricks, smooth stone floors instead of the tiles, and tarnished brass wall sconces scattered along the walls. They looked to be retrofitted with modern light bulbs, but were clearly meant originally for oil and flame. Ember swallowed as he took the first few tentative steps deeper into the corridor. There were different doors on either side of the ghoul leading to rooms he didn’t entirely know what they were for. He honestly didn’t think that the Emeritus’ would be laid to rest in such… squalor. Surely he had made a wrong turn somewhere. There was absolutely no way in hell that Papa III would ever let himself, even in death, be caught dead in such a drab looking place. He sniffed the air. It was cooler here than back inside the lavish room. Sister Olivia had indeed been this way. His brows furrowed. The floor dipped ever so slightly downward as he continued following the winding pathway.

Soon he was met with a decision. To his left lay a path that looked very similar as the one that reached out to his right. He grumbled at how absolutely plain everything looked. It was clear that this was not where the church had funneled any money into whatsoever. He scented the air again, easily picking out the smell of Olivia leaning towards the left side. He ran his fingers along the smooth stone walls as he walked onwards. He had expected to see endless bones and an ossuary like he had seen in Paris on tv once. Big giant archways made out of skulls and packed dirt and cool mosaics made out of spare people parts; big haunting oil paintings of the deceased staring at you and watching you as you walked by a la Scooby-Doo. This was just boring.

He huffed out a frustrated breath before the scent he was following immediately stopped a few paces before he did. He scrunched his nose and sniffed again just to be sure. It was definitely pointing him to a door on the left. Ember leaned his face into the wood, pressing his nose against it close to the handle to make doubly sure. Indeed, Sister Olivia had surely come through this door. Without a second thought he gripped the iron handle of the door and wrenched it open, expecting to see Sister Olivia, distraught and disheveled, having her run and jump into his arms as if being rescued by a daring and dashing hero.

What he saw however was nothing like that. 

The room that the door had opened up into was more reminiscent of the outer façade and interior of the first room. It was covered with beautiful scenes depicting devilish debauchery carved directly into the giant marble slates around the room. It had pillars with ivy climbing up and onto the ceiling. The lamps burned brighter because they were actually lit with ghoulish hellfire and suspended from lengths of golden chain. There was even a fucking water fountain somewhere because he could hear the water bubbling from it and splashing over into a pool of some sort. This is exactly what he had expected when he walked in thinking about the former anti-pope’s final resting places.

In the center of the opulent marble room was a glass case, surrounded by more flowers, stuffed animals, trinkets and tokens, than he had ever seen in his entire life. There were even mis-matched sets of lingerie hidden amongst the gifts. Fire from the lamps overhead glittered in the reflection of the perfectly polished surface that was not being obstructed by the wall of flower bouquets. Ember took a few steps forward and was horrified to see the body of his former friend and band leader Papa Emeritus III lying silently and serenely beneath the encasement as if he had just fallen asleep peacefully and someone decided to entomb that moment of perfect stillness forever in glass. It was as if all air had been squeezed from his body and his guts had been pitted. This was the first time he had laid eyes on his Papa since he had passed away. Ember, unable to deal with the overpowering emotions looked away, unable to confront the reality of the situation before him. 

It was then he noticed an open door way. It didn’t matter where it lead to, as long as it lead away from this room and it’s overwhelming floral decay.

He stopped in the middle of the next room with his hands on his knees, doubled over and trying to catch his breath. It wasn’t as if he had been running, but he did feel winded and unable to gulp down enough air for comfort. When he finally took in his surroundings, he was amazed at where he found himself.

This new room was very open and had a large glass dome in its center, directly above a massive round bubbling fountain just as he had heard from the burial chamber of the former Papa. There were balls of hellfire igniting innumerous candles all along the floors and walls. Incense was burning from a handful of censors somewhere along the corners. He spun around the round room. It appeared that each former anti-pope had his own room directly off this main one. It didn’t make sense then, that to get here he took such a strange back way to enter these crypts. He smacked his head with his hand.

“Ember you fucking idiot… those were access halls for fucking service staff or some shit.” He clenched his eyes at the realization, suddenly remembering when he first came to the clergy that an older fire ghoul, Alpha had warned him of running around into places he didn’t know and getting lost. He was warned about the basements, the dungeons, the tunnels far beneath the massive complex. Alpha had told him above all else to stay away from the service tunnels because they were so old and interconnected it was far too easy to get lost unless you were familiar with the layout or hand a guide with you.

He always resented the restrictions placed on him, but now he wondered if it was for a good reason. Though, surely, the tunnels didn’t connect or reach out this way. Those didn’t look like scary or creepy decrepit tunnels filled with mist-monsters who would come and eat your fucking face off like Alpha had said. _’But they do look stupid…’_ he thought to himself.

Once he had made sure he was able to stomach what was facing him, laying beneath crystal clear glass in each of the other remaining rooms, he padded over to the room directly across from the way he entered. If he had thought about it, he would have realized his mistake, but he was not the brightest fire ghoul in the pit.

This room was still beautiful, but not nearly as dripping with opulence as the Third’s had been. There were very few offerings about, but the flowers were all beautiful nonetheless. He leaned in to get a closer look at the man lying on the raised stone slab. The solemn face of Papa Emeritus I entered his vision. The crimson on his robe should have given it away for the ghoul, but to be fair, he wasn’t thinking very clearly at all. He wondered if there were so few offerings because followers felt he was quiet, creepy, or gross looking. Some even went so far as to describe him as looking like a melted candle. 

Ember wasn’t sure he could properly pay his respects like this, so he turned to leave the first front man of the Ghost Project behind him. Perhaps another day he could come back, lay something down for the old man.  
He exited the crypt and reentered the vast round room. There was only one more space he could enter from this point without doubling back the way he came; the vault ahead, belonging to Papa Emeritus II.

If Olivia were to be here, this is where she would be for certain. He took measured steps ahead, going around the fountain. Many coins glittered up at him from the basin of the fountain; he wondered what people even wished for in a place like this. Humans were very strange creatures.

He stepped inside The Second’s resting place and was immediately surrounded by rich black velvet walls and lush emerald green silks draping over every surface available it seemed. There were enough candles that it looked reminiscent of a ritual space. There were flowers everywhere, stuffed animals, bottles of various coloured liquids, paper notes, and even one stray ball gag precariously balanced over a set of blood red roses. His followers’ undying ‘devotion’ was surely shown in very different ways for different siblings of sin. Amongst the various candles of differing heights something caught Ember’s attention. Up by the farthest corner of the stone slab looked to be something soft and silky. He stooped down to take a closer look in the now flickering candle light.

It appeared to be a lock of hair, probably left behind by some rather devout sibling. He was about to turn away when he noticed something rather odd. The space around the lock of hair was glittery, as I lights were dancing around it. Maybe something had spilled by a careless devotee? No, there’s no way the caretakers would leave something like that if the rest of the place was anything to judge by. Though, he was certain that there had been lipstick stains all over the base of Papa III’s marble alter, holding up the glass casket. He stuck his finger in it and pulled it back, smearing the liquid in between his forefinger and thumb to gauge viscosity. Upon inspection, it was deep blood red.

Not only was it the colour of blood, it _was_ blood.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading and sticking with me. Your comments mean the absolute world to me. Truly, I am always overjoyed to the moon and back when yall leave comments on anything. I love you all so much and it really means alot to me that you even give me the time of your day to read my silly drabble. If you want, come yell at me on tumblr @ljmaystrader


	12. True Nightmare

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We found blood. This answers the question of whose it is. For the most part.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is short because I couldn't leave it on a cliffhanger like that.

Ember made a noise and jumped back slightly, afraid at what he had found. He twisted, looking around anxiously as if anyone would spot him. He was alone still, he knew this. But now there was random blood and hair, and he needed to calm down. There was absolutely no chance of this as he quickly rushed back, kneeling on the side of the casket. Not only was there a lock of hair laying in a puddle of blood, he saw now that it was still attached to a head. The head looked like it belonged to… no. No, this couldn’t be happening.

Sister Olivia was laying face down in a pool of what appeared to be her own blood. Embers eyes welled up with tears. How could this have happened? This was all his fault. He would be sent back to hell in record time no doubt once anyone found out. He sobbed, reaching out to move a giant teddy bear that Papa II would have absolutely hated and had it set ablaze if he were still alive to do so. It was massive, white, furry, and held a glittery red heart with white lace trim, emblazoned with the words “I wuv you” on it in a black glittery vinyl. Someone had hand made his signature ferula out of what appeared to be felt and shoved it through the opening between the bears arms where it wasn’t sewn down to the heart. 

He tossed the bear aside, careful to avoid staining its fur. Sister Olivia looked so calm and peaceful, like she was just sleeping aside her beloved Papa. Would he have been there at whatever afterlife awaited her? Was she finally at peace now? He moved to roll her over. He would have to be the one to bring her back to the clergy and face the firing squad. Do they even still do that anymore? Was it just a tv thing? He would have to leave behind all his friends and the life he had grown rather fond and accustomed to in the church. They would banish him and seal him so he could never be allowed to return. Ember wailed in pain. It was all too much for his body to handle. There was only so much despair his thin body could hold, and this was the precipice of it all. 

He was absolutely broken. There were no other words to describe it. His hurt and utter suffering came out in screaming cries. Hot and heavy tears rose up and fell over his skin. His glamour faltered, but it didn’t matter. Pitch black skin and cracks of opalescent reds glowed into being. His horns sprouted, separating his long blond hair. He wanted to scream and yell until his voice was shredded and torn apart in his throat and he had nothing left in him.

Behind him his tail lashed out, knocking over something and breaking it. Not that he cared much, but it would be worse if he set anything on fire. He turned to look and see what it was. A bottle of whiskey had fallen over from where it was perched on top of something. It looked like someone took a pillar candle down from a stand and set the bottle on top of it. The stinging of his tail caught up with him now; the whiskey burning the small cut the broken glass had made. 

In his haze of emotions, he never noticed the small groan from the woman on the floor. Olivia felt a pounding in her head and it was only exacerbated by the screaming shadow-figure before her. She wanted to throw something at him to get him to stop. She wanted to sit up and yell at him for making her head hurt. There was an attempt, but it didn’t work as well as she had hoped. Her head felt awful; her blood pumping through her body sounded like someone was hammering away on a thick slab of wood and it hurt with each new pulse. She tried to roll onto her side to swat at him and get his attention. Was he even real or was her vision just playing tricks on her still?

She reached out, her arm heavy and trembling. Her fingertips barely brushed the hot surface of the shadow. Her eyes strained to adjust. It was too much effort to hold her arm up and so she allowed it to drop with a dull thud. It wasn’t heard over the incessant wailing cries of the shadow. 

Ember picked up his tail, but it lashed out of his grip. It was angry of its own accord apparently. He had wondered in the past if it was even really his tail that came along with him when he was summoned as it never acted right the way he wanted. The ghoul turned back around and nearly jumped out of his own skin. Olivia had moved. Had he disturbed her? Did he accidentally kick her body when he whirled around to check out the bottle? He knelt down once more. He saw her eyes flutter and her lips working. He blinked a few times silently, save for his heavy breathing. Her fingertips twitched. 

Immediately he dropped down to listen for anything. He laid his ear against her chest. Her heart was there beating steadily. She coughed, he sat up and stared in amazement. She looked as if she were in pain. He blinked back more tears and wiped them away with a black clawed finger. 

“Dew?” she wheezed softly. It was all he needed to hear. He descended upon her and held her so tightly he heard a few bones pop from the effort of his squeeze. He immediately let go and sat up, practically straddling her. He brushed his hands all over her face and neck and upper body to check her over for wounds. He raised her arms up and checked each wrist then put them carefully back down. Her hair was drenched and messy. He wiped a stringy strand away from her face when he finally saw the bloody cut. He knee-jerk reaction was to lick it and clean it, but he wasn’t sure that was a thing among humans. He never bothered to learn much about their health practices beyond safe sex. 

Ember leaned in and nuzzled against her cheek, making a small sad noise in the back of his throat and chittering. She felt cold to the touch. Remembering he was still practically wearing her blanket, he pulled it off and wrapped her up like one would a burrito. He gently wound his arms around her and encompassed her in a warm embrace only a fire ghoul could offer. He wasn’t sure if any of this was real or a desperate fever dream anymore. He didn’t care. 

Quickly, they fell into a soft sleep.

Ember dreamed of a garden on the church grounds that he had been to a handful of times before. It was secluded and off the beaten path and if you didn’t know where to look, you would never even know it was there. It had a small reflecting pool with a gazebo and a couple of concrete benches with cushions scattered about. There was a gold and red oriental rug with golden tassels on the corners. Trellises kept it hidden from view. He dreamt that he was planning a future date for Sister Olivia and himself. There were flower petals dusting the stone floor and white candles littering the space, and under a bench was a hidden basket filled with all sorts of nibbles to share between them.

He lay on his back, watching the water’s mesmerizing reflections dance around on the top of the gazebo. He felt himself smiling at his clever date idea and knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that she would love it. The scene skipped forward and Olivia was lounging lazily on the fire ghoul, using his soft belly for a pillow. She was laughing at something and their fingers were entwined together. Her skin was so soft against his and her laughter sounded like bells made of crystal. This moment, them together, was perfect. The sun had set and the sky was painted with the most beautiful hues of red and deep purple.

The scene changed once more. They were talking now about something but he couldn’t make out the words spoken, even thought he was one of the ones speaking. Ember pulled her unexpectedly onto his lap to which Olivia laughed gently. He began to tickle her. It was rather cute and playful, and Ember, being the mischievous ghoul he was continued to torture her with tickles. The more she tried to escape, the more she found herself caught in his web of clawed fingers gently poking and wriggling against her.

Ember cackled as the woman continued to writhe in his grasp. It was darker now. The sun had fully set. The ghoul continued, laughing more and more increasingly menacing. His voice deepened, his claws grew in length. Olivia’s delightful giggles turned into petrified screams. He was no longer simply tickling her. No, to his horror, he was now flaying her alive with his razor sharp claws; _and he was enjoying it_. 

Trapped within the dream turned nightmare he was helpless but to sit and bear witness to what his other-self was doing using his body. Ember didn’t want to do this, but he felt his body being pulled and manipulated by invisible threads causing him to move against his will. Olivia was covered in blood now, her body becoming mutilated and twisted from skin being sliced open and away from her muscles and bone. Ember licked his lips finding his mouth was positively watering at the grotesque display before him. He leaned forward and licked blood spatter from her soft cheek. Salty warm tears mingled into the dips and rivulets of blood. He snarled. There was a scream. He lunged with open jaws. It went black. 

He roared with anger and agony. It sounded so far away, like it didn’t come from his own throat, but someone else’s far, far, away in the darkness. 

There was something else striking through the bitter blackness. His name rung out clear as day in between his howls of despair and regret. He knew the voice that spoke it into existence. He tried desperately to reach out for it, to hold onto it and the comfort it brought along with it. He scrambled through the bleary tears in his eyes to try to see who was calling him, but it was no use. All that lay before him was a vast expanse of pure pitch black.

There. Again. It was even more clearer now. The soft sweet angelic voice beckoned him forward, to follow it through the darkness. He obliged the voice, knowing it would bring him… somewhere that wasn’t here. That’s what he wanted. He began to run towards it, following it blindly. It sounded as though he was running through water and that every footfall was splashing into something wet and warm as it collided with his bare skin. He couldn’t tell what it was, but he had a sickly feeling he knew that if he could see, it would be a vast red sea surrounding him. He did not want to see that, so he closed his eyes, shutting them tightly against the imaginary blood floor. 

He ran and ran but seemed to make little to no progress. The voice was concerned now and sounded more urgent. He needed to get to it, no matter the cost. The voice was pleading now, yelling at the top of its lungs. It cried out for him. It demanded he come for her.

For her.

Her.

Olivia.

His eyes snapped open. Although his vision was slightly cloudy from the remnants of sleep, he could make out the woman hovering ethereally above him. He was surprised of course, because humans do not float. Her hair was in his face and tickled his nose, he went to swat it out of his way but found himself unable to move. _Fuck_. The ghoul immediately knew what had happened. He had a nightmare and it led to sleep paralysis. This was unusual for ghouls, but lucky him, he had always been a little unusual compared to other ghouls.

Olivia smiled. “Hey there,” she croaked out in a hoarse voice. Her eyes softened and melted Ember’s heart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for staying with me and reading this. Your kind words and comments make me super happy and I am absolutely beyond the moon thrilled when I see them. Thank you, really.


	13. Pray for absolution

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ember is trying to shake off the bad nightmare, but what if it was going to be replaced with the grim truth of something far worse?

He made what he thought was a sympathetic look with what facial muscles he could move. Olivia was sitting up, but found the effort a bit taxing, so she slid back down beside him, nuzzling into that crook of his shoulder that she seemed to fit so well. The ghoul wanted to cry. He wasn’t sure that he was even really awake. This could all be a terrible dream within a dream sort of thing. His heart sunk into his gut. Of course this was something like that. After all, why would he be allowed something as nice and soft and wonderful as the sweet woman lying next to him?

She slowly moved her arm to where she was holding him. He wanted this to be real. He needed this to be real. He needed this beautiful woman alive. His body was still unwilling to cooperate with his wishes to move it. Still he continued to strain to just lift a finger or wiggle a toe; both of which were things Sister Olivia had mentioned to him offhand earlier in the wee hours of the morning over a cup of tea in her kitchen. He amazed even himself at remembering it.

Eventually, after what felt like a small forever, Ember could wiggle around enough that he knew he would be able to speak now to Olivia. Or at the very least, try to say words and see if they came out making any sort of sense in this delirium. Before he made an attempt at words, he slowly moved his right hand up to meet Olivia’s, and held it gently. She seemed to hold a corporeal form; she was much warmer than before.

Olivia squeezed his finger weakly. Ember wanted to return the gesture, but was afraid of hurting her in this fragile state he saw her in. This still moment was enough, he thought. At least until he felt something warm coming into contact with his skin. It never crossed his mind to see if he was still shifted and unglamoured. He slowly turned his face to see Olivia lying still in the spot she had chosen. He wanted to brush his lips against her skin, tuck her hair behind her ear and fall back asleep like this. His eyes roamed all over her messy hair and over her soft features. It was then he noticed what was oozing onto his flesh.

Olivia had cut her head somehow and her blood was slowly seeping from the open wound. This realization gave Ember the necessary jump of adrenaline to get moving at full strength again, leaving behind any remnants of this nightmare. He let go of her hand, rolling over and up as gently as he could to inspect the hurt woman. He pushed her hair the rest of the way out of her face. Olivia lay beneath him and let the ghoul simply look over her. The throbbing pain was back, but she tried as best she could not to think about it. It however, didn’t feel remotely the same way, as it wanted very much to be felt and noticed. Pain is selfish like that.

There was swelling and it was already badly bruising. He whined lightly as he delicately tried to remove the hair glued in place by the dried coagulated blood. Perhaps he was too late after all, and this was still part of his nightmare banishment. His claws picked meticulously at the small remnants of something hard and small in the wound to remove them. They were bits of glass perhaps. What exactly happened down here? 

“You’re hurt,” he finally said, stating the obvious. He looked down into her eyes, the poor lighting made them appear dark, almost black. He sat up on his knees, tears beginning to form. ‘ _This is my fault…_ ’

Olivia reached up her hand and lay it against Ember’s cheek. The pain was near blinding and searing. “Yeah. Sorry,” she wiped away a heavy tear that spilled over. The ghoul swiftly took her hand in both of his, squeezing it probably a little too tightly.

“What? Why are you sorry?! You’ve bled out and died and this is my punishment and I deserve it! It’s only fair I should be haunted for the rest of… well I would say my life, but I mean I don’t know if banishment counts as death or whatever…” his voice rose and then trailed off. He looked around helplessly. He clenched his eyes tightly and began to sob. Olivia’s eyes widened in disbelief. 

“What in the absolute fuck are you talking about?” she asked bluntly. Surely he couldn’t be _that_ dense, right? “Dew, I’m not dead, but I’m pretty sure I need to see a nurse at the very least. And probably need a bath too, I’m kinda gross I think.” Olivia tried her best to push herself up to a sitting position one handed; Ember still was holding dearly onto her other hand. He wasn’t hearing her though it seemed. He continued to wail into the void above them. The Sister was sure if he continued on, Papa would come back to life just to murder him for disturbing his eternal slumber.

“Dewdrop, stop please. You’re making my headache worse,” she tried again. “Come on now, you need to calm down, look. See? I’m fine. Just a little banged up. You know I’m pretty clumsy; I tripped and fell onto an offering by a sibling. I’m guessing it was a bottle of liquor or something since there’s glass about. But I am certainly not dead. Nor are you banished. I don’t know what the hell you think you’re going on about, but I’m gonna need you to calm down ok?”

It took some time apparently for her words to reach him and even more for them to actually start to make sense of what it was she was saying and get the ghoul to stop acting like a complete and utter idiot. To her credit thought, she stayed still and composed the entire time trying to calm and soothe him. Once her words actually clicked, a switch was flipped, and he stopped making any sort of sounds at all. Abruptly he looked at her as if seeing her clearly for the first time after being buried in the darkness for a long while.

The bleeding was lessened, but she still looked like she had been beaten up a bit. Without thinking, he gathered her in his arms tightly, cradling her head gently to his body. The fire ghoul trembled. Her skin was turning chilly again, but she was right. She was not dead. He had not been banished. She was alive. He was now crying for completely different reasons. These were tears of happiness and slight exhaustion at this point. He continued to squeeze her shoulders and press her even more tightly against his warm skin, leaving Olivia little choice in the matter until she began to wheeze.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” he eased up a bit. “I-I’m just so glad you’re not dead,” he breathed out the words against her dark hair. It was rather unkempt because of all the day’s events, but it didn’t matter to him. “You ran off so fast earlier and I was so confused and then I ran into the Cardinal and he was a dick, and then I had left my keys in your room so I went to go and was afraid to face you and then your door was open and then Copia said you were in the crypts down here and so I ran down and tried to follow you as best I could and then I finally found you and I thought you were dead or maybe dying cause you hurt yourself or something and then I thought they would banish me and blame me for your murder even though I didn’t do anything, and- and-“ he choked as he finally took a breath. Olivia’s head was spinning and she didn’t catch but half of what the ghoul was saying, so she just let him go on and continue speaking until he got it all out. It spilled out like the word vomit it was; all the emotions from the day were finally catching up with him and he was at their mercy.

A few moments later when he was exhausted of tears and words alike, he still clung to Olivia like she would dissolve from his grasp if he even thought about letting go of her. His breath finally evened out and the creeping embarrassment was beginning to take place of a few empty emotion slots inside him. Before it could completely take hold of him and paralyze him with anxiety or anything else, he figured it was as good a time as any to at least try his luck. It could be said easily, that Ember was not a very bright ghoul. Lucky perhaps, but not very bright at times. Had he been clearly able to think, he never would have done what he was about to do next.

He peeled himself away from the woman in his grasp to look at her at arm’s length. The candles danced in her eyes and it looked like the fires of hell were inside her fueling her life itself. He slid his hands up her shoulders to cup either side of her face. He knew the second the idea popped into his mind, he should have asked permission first, but here he was, too far into the motion to stop now. He had to strike while he had the nerve and just go to confession later for absolution.

He pulled Olivia swiftly towards him and met his lips to hers in what would be considered a rather chaste kiss for the fire ghoul. Olivia was utterly overwhelmed at the brisk force, swaying in her spot, but held in place by the ghoul’s hands. Her brain fired rapidly trying desperately to catch up with what was happening. Ember, the fire ghoul, the lead guitarist, Dewdrop, had his mouth latched onto hers. She abandoned all thought and finally just gave in to it. She readily kissed him back, tilting her head ever so slightly with the intentions of deepening it.

Ember however, pulled away. He still clutched her face between his blackened and clawed hands. He couldn’t tell of course, but his eyes were dilating as they darted back and forth between hers searching for any sign he just fucked up. When he found none he felt the tension melt away from his tired muscles. It was reflected in the relief he saw in the Sister as a small, almost imperceptible smile etched across her lips. 

“I’m sorry. That was probably really out of line, but I’ve just been waiting to do that for the longest.” Ember said, swallowing hard. There was a gentle yet steady thumping sound Olivia couldn’t place. Her eyes caught a bit of movement just behind the ghoul and realized with a chuckle what it was that was causing the sound. It had been his tail, thumping and swishing itself against the stone floor. 

He smirked as he brought his tail around in front of him, between their bodies, when he realized what exactly she was trying to look at. He slithered it around her forearm, allowing it to coil up gently around her wrist. The soft spade end softly patted her in a very easy way. The ghoul gently tilted her head up so she would look at him once more. He saw her worried look and now considered that this was all very sudden, too fast for her. Perhaps he shouldn’t have done anything at all until later when they both were probably in a better state of mind. 

She didn’t say anything as she picked involuntarily at the skin around her nails with both hands. It was not the best bad habit to have as it often hurt and left her fingers a little bloody and raw around the edges. She was dizzy, her head swam with a lot of everything. She wasn’t sure she was even still thinking clearly. No, she knew for a fact she was not. She was in slight shock more than likely. The pain of the skin tearing away from her finger worked to ground her a bit, but everything was all happening at once around her and she was beginning to be overwhelmed by it all. She felt her heart hammering away inside her head. Olivia looked through Ember slightly, not because she wanted to, but because she was being made to by her brain as it processed the overload.

“Will you have dinner with me, fire ghoul?” she heard the words tumble out of her mouth quickly. Her voice was small and slightly high pitched. It also sounded dry suddenly, so she tried to clear it. The tail twisting itself around her arm made this very difficult for her. “There should still be stuff in the dining hall. It’s probably not too late, I think.” 

Mentally she kicked herself for asking such an idiotic question out of the blue. However, much to her surprise, a very wide smile spread across Ember’s face. He nodded, releasing her face, but not his tail’s grip on her wrist. He was relieved and ecstatic that she had finally piped up and that it wasn’t an outright rejection.

“Yes, beautiful Sister Olivia. I do have one stipulation however. Let’s get you cleaned up and patched first, ok?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a short chapter, yes, but!  
> It finally happened yall.  
> The first of many many more fun and fulfilling things to happen. It only took forever to get here it feels like lol
> 
> Thank you everyone for your exceptionally kind words and comments and feedback. It really means so much to me to hear from you all. Even if it's just a string of completely incoherent letters. I totally feel like that after reading some of yall's work too just so you know.  
> I'll see you in the next chapter!


	14. Will you hold my hand?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is the part of the story where we finally get to leave that god-forsaken tomb and Olivia and Ember hold hands!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy shit, what's this a new chapter!?  
> Yes, yes it is. Apologes for it being a short one too. It's been sitting on my desk and waiting to be typed up for literal months now. Thank yall for the thoughts and questions on if this is gonna be picked back up. It most certainly is, and here is proof.

Olivia smiled a weak and weary smile. The tail’s spade tip playfully pattered against her skin before tugging carefully as Ember stood up slowly. He held out his hand and gently guided her own to his with his tail. It was a rather odd sensation for the Sister. She supposed this would just be something she would just get used to over time. There was plenty more questions she had about the unusual appendage, but they could wait as the loud gurgle of her stomach broke the silence that settled between them. Though it hadn’t been too long since their last ‘meal’ it did get rained on and ruined, so she found herself actually quite hungry. Ember snickered, thinking it was cute.

“Maybe we should grab something to snack on first on the way to the med-ward,” the ghoul remarked, using his tail to help her keep stable on her wobbly legs. Olivia wrapped the red and white blanket around her shoulders, pulling it tightly. She faltered for a step, but caught herself. Ember steadied her. “You good to walk? I-I can carry you, you know… if you want? Like a piggy back ride.”

Olivia blushed, looking away. “No, I’m alright, I just, um. A little dizzy, I think.” She motioned to her head. “Probably a concussion or whatever, so we should-“, she stumbled over a big over-stuffed animal. Ember’s tail kept her upright and from falling face first onto the stone floor. It had uncoiled itself and slithered around her waist best it could and tugged her closer to the fire ghoul. She couldn’t lie, the proximity of the ghoul was nice as he put off so much warmth. It was rather comforting and she could feel herself just melting right into him. Olivia swayed on her feet, but Ember’s hands were quick to catch her.

“You sure about that, Sister Olivia?” he asked, concerned.

“Well, maybe…” she sucked in her bottom lip, chewing on it slightly before continuing. “Maybe you could hold my hand?” Olivia glanced up at the ghoul before looking away again. No sooner had the words left her mouth did Ember take her hand in his. Their fingers entwined and Olivia was instantly head over heels once again for the ghoul. The tips of her ears burned with a furious blush.

“Of course I’ll hold your hand, pretty Sister Olivia,” he beamed at her. Olivia’s hand was a bit clammy so he gently warmed it up with a bit of his elemental powers. Hell, he would pick her up and tote her wherever she wanted to go if she asked it of him. He didn’t mind at all.

Olivia held onto the corners of the plush blanket with her free hand to keep it closed. She couldn’t help but to steal glances over at Ember’s bare skin. It sent shivers down her spine, which the ghoul mistook for chills. He pushed a bit more of his element towards her attempting to warm her from the outside in.

Ember gently squeezed Olivia’s hand as he led her out from the burial chamber of the Second Emeritus and into the larger open room with the water fountain. He noticed that from this side it had a reflecting pool and the myriad of candles bounced their light in all directions onto the gentle waves from the water within. He thought it looked rather enchanting and thought he would like to bring the lovely Sister Olivia back at a later time. They wound their way back up through the stone hallways of the catacombs, and ended up in the gardens on the opposite end. He furrowed his brows in confusion and slowed his walking pace to a crawl.

“What the matter?” Olivia asked softly, looking over to him.

“I… um, well, I didn’t come this way and somehow got turned around.” He scratched the back of his head, pulling hi ponytail to the front of his shoulder. Olivia giggled at him.

“It’s alright. I come by this way every now and again, so I know the way to the med-wing from here.”

Ember allowed Sister Olivia to take the lead and direct their stroll. Though, admittedly, he did keep an eye out for a more private area in case they were to run into someone. After all, it was a rather nice night out, there were bound to be straggling couples off for an evening romp somewhere. Furthermore, he was in no mood to answer any questions anyone might bring up as to the current appearance of the Sister, or the fact they were holding hands. How was he supposed to answer any type of questions like that when he himself hadn’t even had the time to think about?

IT was true, he certainly liked Sister Olivia and wanted to explore the possibilities of them becoming something more than ‘just friends’ but he was a ghoul and his number one priority would always be the church and with that came certain unavoidable obligations. HE didn’t want to stick her with something serious only to be away from her for months on end what with the touring; that just wouldn’t be fair to her. On the other hand, he could no longer contain his feelings for her, and he didn’t want to just treat her as nothing more than an easy lay. If that was the case and all he cared about, he could easily go back to see Sister Jenny who had practically thrown herself at him the night before. Or, well any number of people, human and ghoul alike.

Olivia piped up as they neared the west entrance to the gardens that lead towards the medical wing. She felt as if something were troubling the ghoul, since she had never known him to be so quiet around her. _If it was something that bothered him to that extent, surely he would say something… it really wouldn’t be my place to push. Maybe he’ll feel better once he’s eaten something_. Olivia concerned herself with her thoughts to the point she never noticed someone was approaching them until Ember tensed and growled out a welcome.

“Cardinal,” he greeted the man stiffly.

“Ah! There you are! You skipped out on band practice tonight, we were all so worried for you, Dewdrop,” the Cardinal waved, his voice washed over with faux relief. Ember knew he was lying through his teeth, but couldn’t risk calling Copia out on it in front of the Sister.

“You didn’t tell me you had practice, Dew.” Olivia whispered harshly, feelings as if she had just gotten the ghoul into trouble.

“I didn’t know about it,” he answered; his voice above a whisper so that he knew the Cardinal would hear him.

“A, and I see you have also found the lovely Sister Olivia as well,” Cardinal Copia added with a hint of deviousness to his tone. “All the same, I hope you have nothing else to attend to so you can go and make up for lost time with either Aether or Swiss.” That scheming rat bastard was really trying to do this now? Really? “I hope you will excuse us, Sister-“

“Um, actually Cardinal, I was hoping he would join me for dinner. If-if that was alright with your eminence?” Olivia stammered, struggling to speak up. This greatly pleased the Cardinal as well as relieved Ember. There was no way in Hell he was about to get punished for missing something that had never taken place.

“I see,” Copia said, stroking his chin thoughtfully. “If that is the case, I simply have no choice but to comply with such a lovely Sister’s request. But I do hope you see to that cut on your head soon. It looks rather nasty and could become infected if not taken care of properly.” He stroked a stray strand of hair away from Olivia’s face, causing her to flinch. “Though, don’t think this lets you off the hook, ghoul,” he said and turned his gaze to Ember. “You will see me after you finish with the Sister here, eh?”

“Yes, Cardial, of course. However, Ember was actually escorting me to the nurse now to get it cleaned up. That’s why he was uh late and subsequently missed the practice. Please don’t punish him, it isn’t entirely his fault, you see.” Olivia squared her shoulders and looked head on at the Cardinal. Ember could have absolutely taken her right there and then. She was putting herself directly in front of the ghoul in a subconscious effort to defend him from Copia. 

“Yes, it appears that way. I will be sure to take your words into consideration, Sister. Now please, go on ahead and see the nurse. Don’t let me keep you from treatment,” he said, stepping aside and sweeping his arm forward with a flourish, in typical Copia fashion.

“Thank you, your Eminence,” Olivia dipped her head as she took the lead with Ember in tow, towards the medical hall. When they were out of earshot Olivia murmured over her shoulder so only Ember would overhear her, “I didn’t mean to get you into trouble, Dewdrop. I’m sorry.” Her voice was smaller somehow and slightly guilt-tinged.

“No, you don’t have anything to be concerned about. I don’t think I can be in trouble for missing a practice that was never even scheduled,” he slipped his hand out of Olivia’s grasp to open the door for her. “Go ahead inside and I will see to the Cardinal about this.” He pressed a soft kiss to her cheek and smiled warmly at her. “I’ll be back soon ok?”

“O-ok, I’ll just go sign in and wait t be seen then,” she looked around at the empty waiting area, then zeroed in at the reception desk. She turned, walking away from the warm security of the ghoul to the anxiety of being in the cold and clerical medical office.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for sticking with me and this silly story. I greatly appreciate all of you and your feedback and continued interest in this work. Depression is a fuckin bitch and has kicked my ass for the past few months and I'm just trying to get by at this point. Thank you for keeping up with me <3


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